The U.S. government and its allies froze a total of 4.9 million U.S. dollars of funds with suspected ties to terrorism in 2005, a significant drop from 68 million dollars in 2001, the USA Today newspaper reported Monday.

Efforts by the United States and its allies to pursue the assets of individuals, charities and groups with suspected ties to terrorists began under a presidential directive after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and it has been a key part of the Bush administration's strategy to make it more difficult for terrorist groups such al Qaida to get money to operatives.

In the 16 weeks after the attacks between September and December 2001, 157 suspected terrorism fundraisers were identified and assets valued at 68 million dollars were frozen. The number fell to 56.5 million dollars in 2003, 12.3 million dollars in 2003, and 8.9 million dollars in 2004.

The totals for 2005 - 4.9 million dollars frozen in the accounts of 32 suspects or organizations - suggested the effort was losing intensity because of a lack of help from foreign governments and an uneven commitment by the U.S. government to monitor suspicious transactions at financial institutions in the United States and abroad, Jimmy Gurule, a former Treasury Department undersecretary for enforcement, was quoted as saying.

Gurule's criticism was rejected Treasury Department officials, saying the decline in blocked assets was not an accurate measure of the effort against terrorism funding, the newspaper reported.

Source: Xinhua