dealers in their pockets by seizing profits they have made from selling narcotics over the previous five years.

The Proceeds of Crime Bill will also enable Government to prevent money laundering and replaces a 1988 law that proved to be ineffective.

The bill, promised by Government in last year's Throne Speech and tabled in June, was never debated.

Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness said last night: "It's a fairly complex bill and we finally had it ready at the end of the last session. We took it to Parliament so that it could have wider input and so the public could have access to it.

"It would then create more feedback. It was important that the financial sector and others were able to understand what was being proposed. We consulted with the financial institutions and as a result of those discussions, we made some modifications to the bill.'' Security Services Coordinator Martin Law said the modifications were minor and not significant to the bill's general purpose.

The proposed legislation is designed to replace the Drug Trafficking Suppression Act 1988, which never lived up to the expectations of the authorities who wanted to be able to seize the assets of drug dealers.

Mr. Edness said: "The Attorney General felt the 1988 Act had faults in it that unfortunately meant that it was unable to do what it was intended to do.

The Police were uncomfortable with it.'' He said he was unsure if the legislation was ever used to successfully seize the assets of drug traffickers, as was expected.

Mr. Law said: "It proved not to be a very practical piece of legislation to operate. The Police found it very difficult to put in place the clauses which would capture the proceeds of drug crime. The Proceeds of Crime bill will give the courts more powers.

"The power lies basically with the courts to order the confiscation of assets of convicted drug dealers. This legislation is designed to be more effective than the Drug Trafficking Suppression Act,'' he said. "It has much wider scope, providing for the courts to look back into a person's past history to see which assets could be allocated to drug profit going back five years.

Also, there were no money laundering provisions in the old Act.'' Mr. Edness said: "This bill contributes significantly to our stance on the money laundering issue domestically, in how we fight it, and internationally in terms of cooperating with other jurisdictions.'' In 1994, MPs agreed to international measures against drug trafficking which committed the signatories and their Dependent Territories to have comprehensive laws in place to combat drug trafficking and to cooperate with other countries in this regard.

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