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.