UNITED NATIONS, August 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The global campaign to separate al-Qaeda from its money has stalled, as Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network still has access to considerable financial resources despite unprecedented international efforts to freeze its assets, according to a report by a panel of U.N. experts.

Al-Qaeda still has access to millions of dollars in funding despite U.S.-led international efforts to cut them off, The Washington Post said Thursday quoting from the draft U.N. report.

The 43-page draft report, made available to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday, was compiled by a group set up in January to monitor the enforcement of an arms, travel and financial embargo against al-Qaeda and its associates ordered by the Security Council after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

"Despite having lost its physical base and sanctuary in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda continues to pose a significant threat to international peace and security," the report said, adding that, "Despite initial successes in locating and freezing" al-Qaeda assets, it "continues to have access to considerable financial and other economic resources."

The network continues to draw money from the inheritance of its leader, Saudi millionaire bin Laden, as well as from investments and money diverted or embezzled from charitable organizations, said the report which is expected to be released next week.

It said it has proven "exceedingly difficult" to identify these funds.

The report said that efforts by the United States and the United Nations after the September 11 attacks to freeze and seize all known al-Qaeda sources of funding have stalled.

More than $112 million in suspected al-Qaeda assets were frozen in the first four months after the attacks, but only an additional $10 million have been blocked since then, the Post said quoting from the report.

The report listed al-Qaeda's financial backers in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, who manage, according to estimates, between $30 million and $300 million in investment for the network.

The money reportedly includes investments from Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Panama, reports the Post.

Al-Qaeda is also suspected of having bank accounts under the name of intermediaries in Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Malaysia and Vienna.

Finally, private donations to al-Qaeda, estimated at $16 million a year, are believed to "continue, largely unabated," the report said.

"Al-Qaeda is by all accounts 'fit and well' and poised to strike again at its leisure," the report said.

The Post said the U.N. panel lists a number of factors it says has hampered efforts to shut down al-Qaeda's financial network, including the group's decision to shift its assets into precious metals and gems; the transfer of money through an informal money exchange network, known as haw alas, that is virtually impossible to trace; lax border controls in several European countries; and the failure of the United States and other governments to provide complete information about suspected al-Qaeda members, reports news agencies and the Post.

Revenue also sources from hard-to-track "illegal activities including smuggling, petty crime, robbery, embezzlement and credit card fraud augment these funds."

"The prime targets of the organization are likely to be persons and property of the United States of America and its allies in the fight against al-Qaeda, as well as Israel," it added according to the paper.

The report also states that al-Qaeda remains in contact with allied and sympathetic groups worldwide.

"It has developed operational links with militant Islamic groups in Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia and is still able to work with, or from within, these groups to recruit new members and to plan and launch future terrorist attacks," states the report.