NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Seventeen of the world's biggest financial institutions have been told by the Treasury Department to hand over $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets that the U.S. government wants to use to rebuild Iraq.
Treasury Department spokesman Tony Fratto said the banks have until early next week to transfer the funds into an account being set up at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
On Thursday President Bush signed an order to take possession of the Iraqi government assets that were frozen in 1990 before the Persian Gulf War.
"The president felt that there will certainly be a need to put that money to work for the Iraqi people," Fratto said.
