BUENOS AIRES, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States declared Friday that it lacks information about an alleged plan masterminded by al-Qaida and Hezbollah to attack Jewish targets inParaguay, Brazil and Argentina.

    Reports from Washington said that the US State Department stated in a communique that it has only detected fund collection for Islamic groups in the region of the so-called Triple Border between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.

    The communique said: "Those who support terrorism in the regionof the Triple Border mostly gather funds for Hezbollah and Hamas,"two radical militant groups in the Middle East.

    "The region of the Triple Border has long been a place of interest to the United States and we have begun bilateral and multilateral initiatives to find out the true nature of the threatand to prepare the most adequate anti-terror measures," it added.

    However, it denied that the United States had information aboutthe presence of al-Qaida in the Triple Border or an Islamic terrorist plan in the region.

    The US State Department praised what it described as "anti-terror progress" achieved by Latin America in 2003.

    The United States said it had held talks with Argentina, Braziland Paraguay, known as "Anti-Terror Dialogue 3 plus 1." The most recent talks took place in December 2003 in Asuncion, capital of Paraguay. Enditem