UK freezes assets of 19 suspects

The Bank of England said it would be an offence to make the suspects' money available without a licence from the Treasury.

Britain on Friday froze the assets of 19 of the 24 people arrested on suspicion of plotting to detonate explosives on ten US-bound flights.

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Naming the 19 suspects, the Bank of England said it would be an offence to make their money available without a licence from the Treasury.

Ed Balls, economic secretary to the Treasury, said in a statement that the decision to take financial action was taken on the advice of police and security services.

"The Treasury has instructed the Bank of England to issue notices to effect a freeze of the assets of a number of individuals arrested in yesterday's operations," he said.

This was done under the terms of the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001, he said.

"The Treasury will review the need for further use of our asset-freezing powers as we receive further advice from the police and security services."

The Bank of England released the following names - Abdula Ahmed Ali, Cossor Ali, Shaza Khuram Ali, Nabeel Hussain, Tanvir Hussain, Umair Hussain, Umar Islam, Waseem Kayani, Assan Abdullah Khan, Waheed Arafat Khan, Osman Adam Khatib, Abdul Muneem Patel, Tayib Rauf, Muhammed Usman Saddique, Assad Sarwar, Ibrahim Savant, Amin Asmin Tariq, Shamin Mohammed Uddin.

Britain remains on a "critical" level of alert and the twenty-four suspects are being questioned by anti-terrorism police.