Bangkok: The United States has frozen the financial assets of 10 people, including a Pakistani, alleged to be top members of al-Qaida linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Announcing the decision on September 5, US Treasury Secretary John Snow, who is in Phuket to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Conference Finance Minister's meeting, said the US had also given the list of names to the United Nations and asked it to require all its members to freeze the assets of the 10 men.

Among those named in the list is Imam Samudra, the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombing in October 2002, which claimed more than 200 lives, and Abdul Hakim Murad, a Pakistani.

The Jemaah Islamiyah is also blamed for the Indonesian church bombings, which killed 19 people on Christmas Eve in 2000 and August's Jakarta Marriott hotel blast that claimed 12 lives.

"Today's action identifies 10 individuals at the heart of the Jemaah Islamiyah network," Snow said in a statement.

He said these terrorists had worked to achieve al-Qaida's terrorist goals in South East Asia. "They have plotted to assassinate international leaders, they have planned and supported attacks such as the Bali bombings," he said.

PTI