Gulf Arab countries must boost regional law enforcement to protect their newly launched financial centres, which may be prone to money laundering and terror funding, a top UN official said on May 15.
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said the Gulf region which was already vulnerable to money laundering and drug trafficking, needed a regional criminal centre to better fight such crimes.
"International financial centres could become vulnerable to terrorist financing and isolated national responses are not sufficient," Costa said in a speech at a forum in Doha on combating terrorism and money laundering.
"We must improve law enforcement co-operation among Gulf states and create a centre for criminal intelligence in order to achieve a more effective response to international drug trafficking, crime, money laundering and terrorism," he said.
Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been cracking down on money laundering, particularly since the September 11 attacks on US cities, but the crime still exists especially in the UAE emirate of Dubai, booming financial hub of the world's top oil exporting region.
The UAE, Bahrain and Qatar have recently launched financial centres to attract foreign money by positioning themselves as international tax havens and investment zones.
The West has been piling pressure on the Arab world to crack down on money laundering since the September 11 attacks, fearing that militant groups such as al Qaeda could tap into these funds.