UK expands terror funds list

Another 25 groups have been added to a UK government list of organisations whose assets it wants to freeze as part of the fight against terrorism.

The groups include the republican dissidents the Real IRA, Basque separatist organisation ETA, Peru's Shining Path and the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo.

Several Palestinian groups are also on the list, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the PFLP General Command, which claimed responsibility for the assassination last month of the Israeli tourism minister.

It is the third time the UK Treasury - this time in co-ordination with the US authorities - has given such a list to financial institutions.

But it is a much broader list than the previous two - one of groups believed connected to terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden, and one of individuals in Britain thought to have ties to his al-Qaeda network.

Brown: Says those named have committed, or could commit or fund, terrorist acts

Chancellor Gordon Brown said he expected the institutions to check their records and freeze the assets of those named, wherever found.

"Those named today have committed or pose a real risk of committing or funding acts of terrorism," he said in a statement.

"The ready supply of finance is the lifeblood of modern terrorism.

"Those who finance terrorism are as guilty as those who commit it... we will do whatever is necessary to deprive terrorists of the funds they rely on.

"Just as there is no safe haven for terrorists there is no safe hiding place for their funds."

Since 11 September, the Treasury says it has frozen £63m ($92m) in 36 accounts.

Similar actions are being taken in the US, the Group of Seven (G7) leading nations, and other countries.

The full list from the UK Treasury reads:

• Abu Nidal Organisation
  
• Aum Shinrikyo
  
• Babbar Khalsa
  
• Basque Fatherland and Liberation (ETA)
  
• Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group)
  
• Hamas-Izz al-Din al-Qassem
  
• Hezbollah External Security Organisation
  
• International Sikh Youth Federation
  
• Kahane Chai (Kach)
  
• Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
  
• Lashkar-e-Tayyaba
  
• Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
  
• Mujahedeen Khalq Organisation (MEK), not including the National Council of Resistance of Iran
  
• National Liberation Army
  
• Palestinian Islamic Jihad
  
• Palestine Liberation Front
  
• Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
  
• PFLP-General Command
  
• Real IRA
  
• Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
  
• Revolutionary Nuclei (formerly ELA)
  
• Revolutionary Organisation 17 November
  
• Revolutionary People's Liberation Army/Front
  
• Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso)
  
• United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC)