Some 60 law enforcement and banking officials from Southeast Asia, the United States and Australia gathered in Kuala Lumpur today for a five-day meeting to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.

The workshop is one of the first initiatives of the the Malaysia-based Southeast Asia Centre for Counter-Terrorism, which was established in July.

"The aggressive pursuit of suspicious money trails left by these terrorist criminals will go a long way in breaking the backbone of terrorism," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told participants in his opening address.

"Without money, the terrorist has no means of buying explosives or financing his clandestine operations.

"Unfortunately, there is no ready-made blueprint available on how to beat the problem. We need to draw up one to curb these illegal activities," he said.

Hawala system

Among the topics to be discussed by the participants is "hawala", an age-old system of remitting money based on trust through brokers.

Syed Hamid said the hawala system was blamed for substantial funding of the deadly September 11 2001 terror attack against the US.

The foreign minister said success in combating terrorist financing would depend on strong cooperation by all countries.

"There cannot be a single country doing something while other countries do not."

US President George W Bush proposed the establishment of the anti-terror centre last year after thanking Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for Malaysia's cooperation against terrorism.

But bilateral ties have been strained by Mahathir's strong criticism of the US-led war on Iraq, and the US was dropped as a full partner in the establishment of the centre.

Syed Hamid said at the launch last month, however, that Washington was still expected to provide input and "we welcome collaboration with the US".

The centre would examine the causes and origins of terrorism, study terrorist organisations, focus on border security, give counter-terrorism training and on management of post-terrorism consequences, including those involving chemical, nuclear and biological warfare, he said. - AFP