Britain has frozen $88 million of assets linked to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, finance minister Gordon Brown was due to announce Monday.
The chancellor was to reveal the move in his keynote speech to the ruling Labour Party's annual conference, resuming in Brighton, southern England, in a mood dominated by the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
According to extracts from his speech given to the press, he was to stress the importance of cutting off the "lifeblood" flow of finance to terrorists.
The hard-line Taliban regime is harboring Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect for the devastating suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington which are thought to have killed around 6,000 people.
The assets suspected of belonging to the Taliban were frozen in the London branch of a European bank, newspapers reported.
In his speech, Brown was expected to give details of the financial aspects of emergency legislation already announced by Prime Minister Tony Blair to crack down on terrorist networks.
They would include greater monitoring of bank accounts; stricter duties on banks to report suspicious activities; and more powers to freeze accounts from the onset of an investigation.
At home, Brown insists that Britain is well placed economically to withstand the burden of the global coalition against terrorism spearheaded by the United States.
He told BBC radio ahead of his speech that it was a responsibility that the government had to accept.
"We will pay the price that is necessary, the security, the military, indeed the international development responsibilities -- we accept this," he said.
"Of course there are costs involved but we are, I think, as a country, better placed than 10 years ago, 20 years ago, to deal with costs because we did make the difficult decisions in 1997," when Labour took power.
The other main business of the conference day were a debate on controversial plans to introduce greater use of the private sector in public services, and a speech by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The row over public services was set to have been the biggest flashpoint of the conference, with many activists and union leaders deeply unhappy at the prospect of part-privatization.
However, the debate was likely to be a subdued affair, in deference to the public mood after the attacks in the United States -- BRIGHTON, England (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
