The government of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) expressed its deep regret on Thursday over the U.S. decision to list a Macao-based bank as "a financial institution that has laundered money."

In a statement, the MSAR government said, "The (U.S.) Treasury Department has designated Banco Delta Asia (BDA) as a financial institution that has laundered money, to which the Macao government expresses its deep regret."

The MSAR government will continue to hold close consultations with relevant parties to settle the issue as early as possible, said the statement.

Macao's monetary authority has decided to extend its intervention regime applicable to the BDA and take necessary measures to safeguard the interests of depositors and maintain financial stability.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the move to ban all American financial institutions from doing business with the BDA in 30 days on the grounds that the bank is suspected of laundering money and circulating fake dollars for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Stuart Levey, the Treasury's undersecretary, said the United States will leave up to Macao authorities whether to release the 25 million U.S. dollars in DPRK accounts at the bank, which have been frozen since September 2005.

In September 2005, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered American financial institutions to suspend business ties with the BDA, which subsequently froze the U.S. dollar accounts held by the the DPRK government.

Rejecting the U.S. charge, Pyongyang demanded Washington lift the financial sanctions before it could return to the six-party talks, which remained stalled from November 2005 to January 30, 2007.

Officials from both sides held a series of talks to resolve the issue and pave the way for Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks, which involves China, the DPRK, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

Eventually, the United States agreed to resolve the case this month as part of international efforts to roll back the DPRK's nuclear weapons program.

Source: Xinhua