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SINGAPORE, Tuesday (AFP) - Singapore has passed a law aimed at crippling financing for terrorist groups, the Home Affairs Ministry said Tuesday.

The law allows authorities to target assets like bank credits, travellers cheques, bank cheques, money orders, shares, securities, bonds, drafts and letters of credit on suspicion that they are being used to finance terrorist acts.

It also makes it an offence to provide or collect property for terrorist acts, provide property and services or possess property for terrorist purposes and to deal with assets of terrorists.

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told parliament earlier this month that the law would give effect to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism which the city-state signed last year.

"The terrorist threats that Singapore and the rest of the world are facing today is like nothing we have ever encountered before," Wong said in pushing for the bill.

He recalled the detention last year by Singapore intelligence operatives of 13 men believed linked to terror suspect Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network for reportedly plotting to blow up US targets here.

This showed that "al-Qaeda is a transnational terrorist organisation with sleeper cells all over the world" and that "targeting the financial aspect of these transnational groups will be an effective way to cripple or disrupt their operations," he said.

Singapore is a leading financial centre in the region with rigorous rules but Wong said the new law would "further strengthen" the ability of authorities to monitor suspicious transactions.

"The integrity of our financial systems must be prevented from being used by terrorist organisations," he said. 

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