UAE freezes 'terrorist assets'

The United Arab Emirates has ordered financial institutions to freeze the assets of 62 organisations and individuals suspected by the United States of funding terrorist movements.

President Bush annouced yesterday that the organisations' US assets would be blocked, in a bid to close down sources of funding for the al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden.

Earlier the UAE seized the assets of al-Baraka, one of the two networks singled out by President Bush, which is based in the Emirate Dubai.

Both are Islamic money exchange networks which in effect operate as unlicensed banks. The chairman of al-Baraka Ahmed Nur Ali Jimale, who lives in Dubai, said there was no truth in the allegation that his companies were linked to terrorism.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service