US President George W. Bush gave US authorities new powers on Wednesday to block assets of companies believed to be helping North Korea, Iran and Syria pursue nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The executive order did not mention specific countries, instead saying it applied to "any person or foreign country of proliferation concern."
A US official said that, for now, the administration is targeting four entities from Iran, three from North Korea and one from Syria.
The move was another step in US efforts to overhaul intelligence agencies that have been sharply criticised since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for failing to uncover that plot and faulty prewar judgments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
"By applying these powers against weapons of mass destruction, we deny proliferators and their supporters access to the US financial system and starve them of funds needed to build deadly weapons and threaten innocents around the globe," US Treasury Secretary John Snow said.
The order responded to concerns expressed by a presidential commission that issued a report in March criticising US intelligence efforts on weapons of mass destruction.
The White House said it endorsed 70 of 74 recommendations, will further study three and will not implement one classified recommendation.
In accepting the commission's recommendations, President George W. Bush has directed that a new National Security Service be created inside the FBI to combine the bureau's counterterrorism, counterintelligence and intelligence efforts.
Bush also endorsed the establishment of a National Counter Proliferation Center to manage and co-ordinate intelligence activities on the proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.