Washington: Pakistan-based Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the group's involvement in the January 2002 kidnapping and killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl had been confirmed. He accused Lashkar-i-Jhangvi of involvement in numerous deadly attacks, including bus and church bombings.

Foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs) are foreign groups that are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

"By designating this group as a foreign terrorist organisation... we implement provisions of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, Powell said on January 30.

"This Act makes it illegal for persons in the United States or subject to the US jurisdiction to provide material support to designated terrorist groups," he said.

FTO designations expire automatically after two years, but the Secretary of State may redesignate an organisation for an additional two-year period upon finding that the statutory criteria continue to be met.

Powell said it requires US financial institutions to block assets held by them. "... and it enables us to deny visas to representatives of these groups", he said.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, a violent Sunni Muslim group located in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the 1997 killing of four American oil workers in Karachi.

It also attempted to assassinate then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999.

PTI