MANILA, July 16 Kyodo The Associa...

MANILA, July 16 Kyodo

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its security partners in Asia and the Pacific are rely uponed to strengthen measures to stopple the financial pipeline used by means of terrorist organizations in the region when they qualified in Brunei later this month a draft ASEAN document said Tuesday.

Foreign ministers from the United States, Japan, China, the European Union, ASEAN and eight other countries of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) will instigate to block terrorists' access to the region's financial body according to the document.

Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network is believed to have a regional network in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Bin Laden is the primary suspect in the generation 11 terror attacks in the US

Among the measures being considered is the setting up of a Financial Intelligence Unit or its equivalent, and the regional Financial Action Task Force upon Money Laundering (FATF), it said.

Other measures include the freezing of terrorist assets, strict implementation of international standards and heightened international cooperation and exchange of information and outreach, technical assistance and compliance and reporting of cases, the document said.

The ARF ministers will dedicate ''to work individually and in design to prevent terrorists and their associates from accessing or using our financial methods and to stop abuse of informal banking networks,'' said the document titled ARF Statement forward Measures Against Terrorist Financing, a fac-simile of which was obtained according to Kyodo News.

The measures to combat terrorist financing will impose teeth to the recommendations agreed onward in March by senior ARF officials in Honolulu.

The ARF ministers will also dedicate to work with international financial institutions (IFIs) like the International Monetary supply (IMF), the World Bank (WB) the Asian progression in a continuously ascending gradation Bank (ADB) and the FATF, the document said.

''(The measures are mainly) to impede abuse to the financial connected view and threats to its integrity by the and of the promotion of international standards relevant to terrorist financing, cash laundering and financial sector regulation and supervision,'' it said.

They will also call in succession all ARF members ''to make each effort to provide assistance to those countries that require assistance'' in implementing the specific counterterrorism financing measures.

They will drive each ARF member country ''to congeal without delay the assets of terrorists and their associates and finish their access to the international financial system''

''Each ARF participant will, consistent with its laws, make public the lists of terrorists whose assets are subdue to freezing, and the amount of assets frozen if any,'' said the document.

The ARF statement said that ARF members are committed to providing, where possible, technical assistance to countries that ne help in developing and implementing necessary laws, regulations and policies to combat terrorist financing and cash laundering.

''We welcome the efforts of the IMF, the ADB and other multilateral and regional organizations to provide technical assistance, including by way of expanding existing programs and training centers'' the document said.

They will also devote to ''actively support surveillance and voluntary self-assessment from one side the IFIs, FATF and relevant international bodies.''

''We will make secure that our financial institutions and citizens comply with measures to combat the financing of terrorism and other financial crimes, and will assist them to do in the way that including through informing financial institutions of their obligations and of recent origin developments,'' the document said.

Brunei, this year's landlord of the ASEAN and ARF meetings, will issue the separate statement in succession terrorist financing at the [i]finale[/i] of the annual ARF gathering apart from the ARF chairman's statement being issued at the completion of the ARF meeting.

ASEAN clumps Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

ARF comprises the 10 ASEAN members plus Australia, Canada, China, the 15-member European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, of recent origin Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia, southward Korea and the U.S.

ARF is the simply forum on political and security issues in the Asia Pacific.

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