The Treasury Department took aim at all 55 ousted regime members -- including Saddam himself -- in the Pentagon's "deck of cards" naming top US targets.

Their names were placed on a list of specially designated nationals, freezing any of their assets in US jurisdiction and banning US citizens from doing business with them.

The United States said it also would submit the 55 names to the United Nations, acting under a Security Council resolution freezing the assets of Iraqi state bodies, corporations, or agencies outside of Iraq along with any money removed by Saddam and his regime.

"Today's designation is yet another step in Treasury's effort to locate the assets plundered by Saddam Hussein and his cronies and return them to their rightful owners -- the Iraqi people," Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a statement.

"As with any assets of the former Iraqi regime, any funds found will be used to help the people of Iraq as they rebuild their country after more than two decades of tyranny," Snow said.

The Treasury Department said it had returned more than 660 million dollars in Iraqi assets previously frozen in the United States to Iraq to pay civil servants and pensioners and to provide capital for Iraqi ministries.

The United States and its allies also had found more than 1.2 billion dollars in previously unknown Iraqi assets, the Treasury Department statement said.

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