Saturday, December 10 2005 09:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: India has signed the United Nations anti-corruption treaty, which, among other things, now makes hiding of illegal gains difficult.

India's Ambassador to the United Nations, Nirupam Sen, signed the treaty during a brief ceremony at the world body's headquarters here yesterday (Dec 9,2005).

The treaty requires signatories to return assets obtained through corruption to the country from which they were stolen.

This had particularly been an important issue for developing countries where corrupt officials took illicit gains out of the country and hid them in foreign lands.

Topics covered by the 71-member treaty include bribery, illicit enrichment, misappropriation, money-laundering, protection of whistle blowers, freezing of assets and cooperation between states to uncover corruption.