The United Arab Emirates has enacted its first counter-terrorism law, imposing strict sentences for offenders, including death penalty, the official WAM news agency reported on Wednesday.
Under the law, courts can hand out death sentences to anyone found guilty of setting up, participating in or managing any group with the intention of committing terrorist acts.
The law, ratified by UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, describes as "terrorism" any act that spreads terror or harms the public or heads of states or government officials or that which seeks to destabilise the general order or society.
Imprisonment for life or shorter periods would be passed on anyone guilty of aiding terrorist groups with funds, weapons or shelter either inside or outside the UAE and anyone guilty of receiving military or security training by terrorist groups.
Pro-Western UAE, whose population is 85 percent expatriate, has arrested militants in the past but has been spared Islamist attacks that have rocked other countries in the region.
The UAE said in 2002 it was responsible for arresting Abd-al-Rahim al-Nashiri, identified as al Qaeda's chief in the Gulf, and handing him over to Washington, which blames al Qaeda for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.
The UAE said this year it would also issue new laws to combat terror financing. Its financial laws came under scrutiny when it admitted that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers had moved cash through UAE firms.