As the US financial system resumed full operations yesterday, officials began taking aim at the funding that is the lifeblood of global terrorist networks. With Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden - and his well- financed al Qaeda organisation - now identified as prime suspects, attention was focusing anew on ways to stem the flow of dirty cash through the system.

"It is important to have an understanding in our laws of the result of offering financial support to a terrorist," US Attorney General John Ashcroft said, adding that the Justice Department would this week ask Congress to strengthen its arsenal of investigative weapons in response to the attacks against the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon near Washington.