New York: American investigators have evidence that $ three billion that belonged to Saddam Hussein's government are being held in Syrian-controlled banks in Syria and Lebanon, Bush administration officials were quoted as saying.

A delegation led by the Treasury Department has spent nearly two weeks in Damascus trying to win access to accounts established by the former Iraqi government or its confederates, the 'New York Times' daily quoted officials as saying. Syria has promised to cooperate, but has so far failed to do so, the officials said.

A UN resolution passed after the American-led war against Iraq calls on all nations to seize and return to the American-administered fund for development in Iraq all assets of the former Baghdad government, so they may be used to benefit the Iraqi people.

The 'Times' quotes the officials as saying the $ three billion, most of them in Syria, were by far the largest American discovery to date of Iraqi money outside Iraq.

PTI