Leaders of Asia and Pacific countries have announced plans to tighten measures to stop money reaching international terrorist organisations.

Our success together will not be measured by dollars blocked...It will be measured in the safety and security of our citizens US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill

After a two-day meeting in the Mexican resort of Cabo San Lucas, finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum (Apec) agreed a scheme to tackle movement of illicit money outside the formal banking system.

"We remain committed to disabling the financial networks of terrorists and have released an action plan to combat the financing of terrorism," a joint statement said.

The agreement reached by the 20-member Apec - one of the world's major trading blocks - will be discussed by heads of states at the organisation's summit next month.

Fighting 'hawala'

One of the key targets agreed by the Apec was the Islamic informal money transfer system, known as "hawala", which is popular in Asia and Middle East.

O'Neill hailed Apec efforts to tackle terror funds

The system is widely believed to be used by terrorists to conceal funds of groups like al-Qaeda.

The Apec also pledged to target other alternative money-transfer systems, amid reports that some of the terrorist funds have been linked to charities and non-governmental organisations.

During last year's Apec summit in China Apec agreed to combat financial crimes by speeding up the fight against money-laundering.

That initiative has already led to $112million from suspected terrorist groups being blocked worldwide, although a United Nations' report said the process has dramatically slowed down recently.

"Our success together will not be measured by dollars blocked and [terrorist] groups designated," US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said.

"It will be measured in the safety and security of our citizens."