Bush eyes two more groups as war targets

President Bush extended his financial war on terrorism yesterday by ordering a freeze on the assets of two groups in the Indian subcontinent.

One is an organisation that allegedly gave nuclear information to al-Qa'ida network, the other a group in disputed Kashmir that he said aimed to stoke tensions between India and Pakistan.

At a White House ceremony marking the 100th day since the terror attacks on New York and Washington, Mr Bush accused the Kashmir group, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, also known as the Army of the Righteous, of using terrorism to undermine India-Pakistan ties. Careful to appear even-handed in the fraught stand-off between Delhi and Islamabad over the territory, Mr Bush described the group as a "stateless sponsor of terrorism".

The second group is Umma Tameer-e-Nau, set up by a former Pakistan nuclear scientist and which America says masqueraded as a charity. President Bush said its real aim was to give al-Qa'ida information on nuclear weapons.