G-20 Members to freeze terrorists' assets

OTTAWA, NOV. 18. Finance Ministers of the Group of 20 nations agreed on Saturday to freeze assets of terrorists and implement a sweeping U.N. resolution against terrorist financing in a show of support for U.S. goals after the Sept. 11 attacks. With scores of riot police outside keeping protesters well away from their meeting site, the Finance Ministers from the European Union and 19 nations adopted an ``action plan on terrorist financing'' during talks on Friday night and Saturday.

The Canadian Finance Minister, Mr. Paul Martin, the meeting's host, called the action plan a decisive step in coordinating global resources and support for cutting financing of terrorists such as Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks. ``Every single member of the G-20, without exception, has signed on to that action plan,'' Mr. Martin said, including Saudi Arabia - which has supported the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign but faces internal pressure from groups who share the views of Osama, a Saudi exile. The Saudi delegation refused interview requests on Saturday.

Mr. Martin said the G-20 nations agreed to move as quickly as possible on the action plan, which also calls for making public the lists of terrorists with frozen assets and establishing or maintaining Financial Intelligence Units in each country to track terrorist financing. He conceded it would take more time to get countries outside the G-20 to sign on, and ``even longer'' to halt the informal methods of money laundering used by terrorists. ``One of the things that's happening here is we're learning as we're going,'' Mr. Martin said.

Outside in the streets, hundreds of protesters opposed to the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan and the effects of globalisation on the world's poor marched through the city and burned U.S. flags at a downtown rally. Police arrested about a dozen protesters during the march, and later fired tear gas, pepper spray and a water cannon when some protesters knocked down metal barricades blocking streets around the meeting sites. Some in the crowd chanted: ``Whose streets? Our streets!''

The closed-door G-20 meeting kicked off a weekend of discussions by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank also focusing on the lagging global economy. Mr. Martin said the Ministers agreed to have deputies begin studying specific proposals for debt relief and ways to make countries and lending institutions more responsible for their loans. An official statement from the meeting called for the ``earliest possible resolution'' of Argentina's debt problem. The only country mentioned by name in the statement, Argentina is struggling to keep from defaulting on its $ 132-billion debt.

Mr. Martin said the Ministers had ``very, very strong confidence'' in the medium and long-term global economic prospects, though he said ``there is uncertainty'' in the short term. In his statement to Saturday's meeting, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Mr. Paul O'Neill, said there were signs of a U.S. economic recovery early next year. ``The fundamental strengths of the U.S. economy - our strong macroeconomic foundations and our dynamic and flexible labour and capital markets - remain intact,'' he said.

The Group of 20, created in 1999 to address international financial concerns, represents the European Union and 19 nations: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The IMF and World Bank also participate.

- AP

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