The Global Forum for Asset Recovery will bring together governments and law enforcement agencies to discuss returning assets to Nigeria, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.

The meeting will be held in the US next year, co-hosted with the UK, and supported by the UN and the World Bank.

David Cameron made the announcement at a global anti-corruption summit in London on Thursday.

It was being hailed as the first of its kind, bringing together governments, business and other organisations.

However, it was overshadowed by controversy after it emerged that Mr Cameron had described Nigeria and Afghanistan as "fantastically corrupt", while meeting the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury while telling them of the summit.

Nigeria's President Buhari made no reference to the comments while sitting next to Mr Cameron at the opening of the conference.

The Nigerian leader said the international community must come up with ways of getting rid of safe havens and ensuring a better return of assets.

 
Property crackdown

There has been concern recently that the UK, particularly London, had become a place where rich foreigners could buy properties but hide their true ownership.

Mr Cameron said that to stop that happening, foreign firms which own property in the UK must declare their assets in a public register.

Downing Street said Mr Cameron's plans would include those who already owned UK property as well as those seeking to buy it.

It said the register would mean "corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London's property market, and will not benefit from our public funds". (CDN)