New Delhi: India on January 17 appealed to South East Asian countries to enact Laws to choke the financial channels of terrorists who were trying to disrupt peace and progress of business in the region.

Without naming Pakistan, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said certain countries were actively helping terrorists to help disrupt multi-religious harmony in the region in complete violation of the UN resolutions to fight the scourge.

"The legal fraternity of the region will play a crucial role in enacting Laws to choke the financial channels to these elements," he said at the fifth LAWASIA Business Law conference.

He also underlined the need for checking the illegal transfer of money and tax evasions of other white-collar crime syndicates affecting economies of many countries in the region.

Advani said India, Japan and China were emerging as business powers but this trend would not spread to other countries in the region unless the jihadi elements, who have shifted their base from Afghanistan to the immediate neighbourhood of India, were reined in.

PTI