based Council of Europe, covering 46 member states and their 800 million citizens, is distinct from the 25-nation European Union. The Council seeks to forge continent-wide pacts on standardizing laws, in addition to defending human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Its member states include all EU members, plus major non-EU banking centers such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and all central and eastern European countries apart from Belarus. The United States, Japan, and other states participate as observers, and are often additional signatories of the Council's conventions. Esposito said the new treaty would call for members to set up financial intelligence units to collect and analyze data on economic crimes, require greater cooperation among members, reduce the evidentiary burden needed to launch money laundering prosecutions, and make financial institutions report suspicious transactions. The draft treaty is expected to be approved on Tuesday by the committee that develops the Council's financial crime policy, Esposito said. It must then be formally adopted by a ministerial committee on March 30, and finally signed and ratified by member states. Esposito said he expected the treaty to be in force within one and a half years, adding that the likelihood of ratification was "very high." --SP 2309 Local Time 2009 GMT
