By Llazar Semini - The Associated Press

TIRANA - Albania’s opposition Socialist party will call for an investigation into how thousands of foreign citizens, including some suspected of being associates of Osama bin Laden, have been given Albanian citizenship, the party said yesterday.

“Our party will ask (President Alfred Moisiu) to start an investigation to check how Albanian citizenship has been given to some 12,000 foreign citizens, most Kosovo Albanians but also some Arabs, since 1992,” said Erjon Brace, a Socialist parliamentarian.

The US Treasury Department on Monday ordered US banks to freeze any bank accounts or other financial assets belonging to Abdul Latif Saleh, who holds Jordanian and Albanian citizenship and who allegedly worked with Osama bin Laden and others to provide support to terror networks in Albania. Americans were also prohibited from doing business with him.

The department alleged that bin Laden provided Saleh with funds to encourage the creation of “extremist groups” in Albania, where he is believed to be closely associated with groups linked to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group connected to al-Qaida.

The Treasury Department said Saleh founded an Albanian jihadist group that has been bankrolled by the Al Haramain Foundation, an Islamic charity with alleged links to al-Qaida. Saleh’s mission in Albania would be to destabilize the internal situation in Albania by fomenting conflict among the different religious groups in the country, according to the Treasury Department.

Saleh also is believed to be associated with Yasin Qadi, a Saudi businessman that the US accused of being a terrorist in October 2001. The department said Qadi was an active fund-raiser for Saleh’s jihadist group.

The Albanian government has seized the assents of Qadi, who is also being investigated for alleged money laundering for al-Qaida. He left Albania at least three years ago.