David Aufhauser, the Treasury's general counsel, said: "What this order does is cast the net wider, aiming at financial intermediaries and reaching even charitable organisations that are being exploited wrongfully by Islamic extremists. It casts the net wider."
The Executive order allows the Government to freeze the US assets of 11 "terrorist" groups, 12 individuals, three charitable groups and one import-export business that federal law enforcement officials say are connected to the attacks that levelled the World Trade Center and a portion of the Pentagon.
The order also gives the Treasury Secretary broad new powers to impose sanctions on banks around the world that provide terrorists access to the international financial system.
Moving beyond America's borders, Mr Bush said foreign banks that did not cooperate with American investigators could be cut off from doing business in the US.
""If they fail to help us by sharing information or freezing accounts, the Treasury Department now has the authority to freeze their banks' assets and transactions in the United States."
But critics warned the moves could be more a symbolic gesture than a knockout blow.
Kimberly McCloud, a research associate at the centre for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, said: "I think it is important to remember that these groups are not going to go and open bank accounts using these names. The order today is largely a symbolic move."
Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer and money-laundering expert, told the Washington Post that Mr Bush's order broke new ground because the US had "been reluctant to impose sanctions on foreign financial institutions, and the sanctions could be very effective".
Mr Blum called the measure a useful start, but compared it to catching water in a sieve. "[Osama] bin Laden doesn't have an investment portfolio on Wall St."
The volume of terrorist money could be just a drop in the torrent of money that churns through the world's financial systems every day.
The previous Clinton Administration also tried to stop bin Laden's assets, with little success. About 5000 US banks were electronically told simultaneously to see if they had any assets related to those listed in the Executive order.
Yesterday, the New Zealand Reserve Bank wrote to all banks and financial institutions in New Zealand reminding them of United Nations sanctions applied in March against Afghanistan, bin Laden and the al Qaeda, which forbids all financial transactions with them.
The letter by Stephen Dawe, the bank's legal adviser, says the bank does "not expect there will be any known assets of terrorists held within New Zealand financial institutions". But he said any suspect transactions must be reported to the financial intelligence unit of the New Zealand police.
The Reserve Bank has also asked banks to be especially vigilant on transactions from pariah nations, named by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, as not cooperating to stamp out money laundering. They include the Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, the Philippines and the Marshall Islands.
Some of the names on Mr Bush's hit list - what he called his "Most Wanted" list - are familiar, others foreign to all but those immersed in the study of world terrorism.
Some are individuals considered to be close associates of bin Laden. In this category are Muhammed Atef (aka Subhi Abu Sitta or Abu Hafs al-Masri), considered to be bin Laden's de facto chief of staff along with Abu Zubaydah (aka Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn), who US intelligence has described as the gatekeeper to bin Laden's network of training camps.
Abu Hafs the Mauritanian (aka Mahfouz Ould al-Walid) is also included in this group and is said to be bin Laden's operations planner.
The list also contains groups that pose as legitimate charities and non-governmental organisations but which are allegedly fronts for terrorist operations. One is the Al Rashid Trust, described as an Arab-Pakistani financed Islamic aid agency.
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INDEPENDENT
, REUTERS
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