US Treasury Secretary John Snow has defended a secret program which has been tracking international money transactions for nearly five years. "This program is an effective weapon in the larger war on terror," he said. The scheme, which has sifted huge amounts of data from an international banking consortium, was revealed by the New York Times newspaper.  The US treasury says the program was strictly confined to the records of suspected foreign terrorists. Although there is no direct connection, the program has echoes of a recently revealed US surveillance program  in which millions of international and domestic phone calls and e-mails were monitored, correspondents say. "This program  is making a real difference," Mr. Snow said. "It works. It's based on appropriate legal authorities, it has built-in safeguards and controls - it's responsible government." He said the Treasury was using "the tools that Congress has given us to follow the flow of terrorist money".  "These flows," he said, "don't lie, they tell a story and by following those flows... They lead to the terrorists themselves." Snow insisted the program was legally above board. The financial tracking scheme was initiated in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US using emergency powers invoked by President George W Bush, the New York Times revealed. It spoke to some 20 anonymous current or former government officials or industry executives. The government used powers of administrative subpoena to compel the Brussels-based banking co-operative, Swift, to open its records.

Swift - the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication - links about 7,800 financial institutions around the world, including virtually every major bank and brokerage. It provides banks with instructions on how to transfer funds - instructions which include information on the individuals sending money and the amount of money sent. The program was run by the CIA and overseen by the Treasury department. Officials said when the program began, the records of Muslims with names which resembled those of suspected al-Qaeda members were collected. But they said its scope had narrowed after intelligence operatives were flooded with information, much of it useless. The officials said the program had helped in the capture of a senior al-Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia. But there were reservations among some officials who worked on the program, with some suggesting it was inappropriate for an urgent, apparently temporary program to remain in operation for years without formal or congressional authorization. Meanwhile, the New York Times came under fire from the White House for revealing the program. "We are disappointed that once again the New York Times has chosen to expose a classified program that is working to protect Americans," said spokeswoman Dana Perino. "We know that al-Qaeda watches for any clue as to how we are fighting the war on terrorism and then they adapt, which increases the challenge to our intelligence and law enforcement officials." But the newspaper's executive editor Bill Keller said: "We remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest."