EU signs deal to freeze assets

EU countries signed a deal yesterday that freezes the assets of terrorist groups and individuals ranging from Northern Ireland to Lebanon.

Islamic Jihad and the Izeddine al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas, - the Palestinian groups responsible for suicide bombings against Israeli civilians - were joined by the Real IRA and Eta, the Basque separatist group.

Spain failed to persuade its EU partners to include Batasuna, the party widely seen as Eta's political wing.

Individuals included Imad Mughniyeh of Lebanon's Hizbullah, allegedly behind the kidnapping of Terry Waite and John McCarthy in the 1980s.

But the EU list did not include Hizbullah's external security organisation, which had appeared in an earlier draft, reflecting differences among members as to whether the group - fighting Israel from Lebanon, but represented in the Lebanese parliament - could be defined as terrorist.

Nor did the final list include the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK, despite US demands.

The package included: a definition of terrorist crimes; the denial of safe haven to terrorists, their supporters or backers; better cooperation and information exchange; and tighter monitoring of asylum seekers so that terrorists are not given refugee status.