BRUSSELS, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Belgium's Justice Ministry said Monday it had launched an inquiry into revelations that the U.S. government has been monitoring international financial transactions since 2001 as part of its so-called war on terror.

    Belgian Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx had requested the country's security service VS-SE and the federal police money laundering unit CFI to produce complete reports about the matter, Belgian media reported Monday.

    The federal police unit was also asked to draw up a legal analysis of the situation.

    "She wants to know if these actions taken by the U.S. and SWIFT are okay under Belgian law," a ministry spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

    It emerged on Friday that the U.S. government has had access to international bank transactions since the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. These private bank records were supplied by the Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), an international association of financial institutes basedin Brussels.

    The Belgian Justice Ministry denied on Monday that the minister was aware of the U.S. practices.

    "The minister was, just as the prime minister, completely unaware. She only heard it on Friday, via the media," Onkelinx' spokeswoman said.

    SWIFT handles international transactions for nearly 8,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries.

    The latest revelations, following claims last year of secret U.S. abductions and transfers of terrorist suspects in Europe, have drawn fire from the European Parliament. The European Union's lawmakers said the reports suggested once again that Washington was fighting its war at the cost of civil rights.

    Financial institutes in Belgium are obligated by law to report suspicious transactions to the CFI in an effort to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

    The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) confirmed on Saturday it was aware of the fact that U.S. authorities could examine transactions via SWIFT. The NBB released an official statement after media reports broke on Friday.

    But an NBB spokesman refused to confirm when the reserve bank was informed about SWIFT's actions, revealing only that it was informed in an informal manner via its contacts with the firm.

    The NBB said it saw no ethical problems in SWIFT's actions, adding that ethical monitoring was not part of its responsibilities.

    Despite the fact SWIFT had to comply with various standards to ensure a smooth working of the financial sector, the NBB also said America's espionage tactics did not place the sector's operations at threat. Enditem