Four nations will no longer be blacklisted as uncooperative tax havens after they bowed to pressure from world leaders and agreed to implement new rules on financial openness, an international organisation said today.

Angel Gurria, head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, said in a press conference that the Philippines, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Malaysia have been moved off the black list after they agreed to cooperate with international authorities.

"These four jurisdictions have now made a full commitment to exchange information according to the OECD standard," he said. "This is very important progress."

G-20 leaders meeting in London last week pledged to crack down on tax havens, reflecting the concern that their banking secrecy has helped disguise the true value of some global assets and cost other states tax income.

Anti-poverty activists say countries with banking secrecy provide corrupt officials with safe havens to stash illicit funds, often depriving poor nations of needed resources.

The OECD has divided countries into three categories: those who comply with rules on sharing tax information, those who say they will but have yet to act, and nations which have not yet agreed to change banking secrecy practices.

The four countries on the blacklist - the Philippines, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Malaysia - will now join countries like Switzerland and Liechtenstein on a "gray list" of countries that still have to implement their commitment to accept new information-exchange standards.

Gurria said the four countries plan this year to propose legislation that will allow them to comply with OECD standards. Admission to the "white list" depends on the tax havens making good on their promises.

The OECD monitors 84 countries and territories, only 40 of which are on the white list.

The rest, ranging from the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean to Monaco, are under increasing pressure to provide more information to international authorities to prevent people from evading taxes or hiding income by shifting money to such places.

Luxembourg and other gray-listed countries reacted angrily to the OECD's list, with some noting that China managed to have Hong Kong and Macau put in a footnote rather than anywhere on the list.

Jeffrey Owens, director of the OECD's center for tax policy, defended the list, saying it is "based on objective criteria."

Potential sanctions for transgressors include extra audits of those who use tax havens and curbs on tax deductions claimed by businesses using the territories.

Gurria distanced himself from the sanctions, saying they are set by governments and the OECD would not like to see one of its members impose them on another.