RIYADH, July 14: Saudi Arabia has approved a government body, Saudi Relief and Charity Foundation, to oversee religious charities.

The foundation will control and regulate raising and spending of charity funds and appoint external auditors to scrutinize the accounts of charity organizations, so that funds do not end up in terrorist activities.

Already Saudi authorities had taken measures to control the flow of charity funds. All charity houses were told that all overseas transfers would be monitored and that they would have to get their accounts audited by reputed accounting firms.

There has also been a growing emphasis here to concentrate on domestic charity work rather than overseas.

Recently Saudi authorities, including the crown prince, have been openly saying that poverty exists in the country and this issue needs to be addressed by both, the government and the public through charity houses.

Many Saudi charity houses and personalities have been placed on US terror funding lists, and sued for trillions of dollars by the families of September 11 victims.