WASHINGTON -  Amid reports that it wanted to put Islamabad in an international terrorist-financing watch-list, the US said on Friday that the international community has long-standing concerns over deficiencies in the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism measures by Pakistan.

The remarks by State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert came ahead of a crucial Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting to be held in Paris from February 18 to 23.

The FATF is an international policy-making and standard-setting body dedicated to combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

“The international community has a longstanding concern when it comes to the Government of Pakistan about what we consider to be deficiencies in the implementation of anti-money laundering, counterterrorism and other types of issues similar to that,” Nauert told reporters at her daily news briefing.

Nauert was asked about Pakistan Minister of State for Finance Rana Afzal’s remarks that the US is seeking to place Islamabad on an international terrorist-financing watch-list.

Afzal had told the Senate that the move to put Pakistan on the terrorist financing watch-list is a political manoeuvre on the part of the US and the UK to hamper Pakistan’s economic progress.

Asked about Pakistan minister’s assertion, Nauert said, “What this group FATF does is it promotes better measures to crack down on counterterrorism or to work against terrorism and also money laundering as well. Some of those deliberations, I can’t confirm what took place because those are considered to be private.”