Vienna - Countries should do more to combat financial and cyber crime, UN drugs and crime office (UNODC) chief Antonio Maria Costa said Thursday, warning that there were signs of increased crime amid the global economic downturn.

"We can palpably already verify that the economic crisis is causing an additional dose of crime," Costa told reporters in Vienna.

There were indications that organized crime groups were finding it easier these days to funnel illicit cash into banks, as the banking sector was suffering from liquidity problems, according to the UNODC executive director.

By implementing tough anti-corruption measures, people would find in the future that the financial crisis had a "silver lining," he said: "It put an end to bank secrecy, tax havens and regulation and compliance failure."

But rather than looking only at money laundering in the financial sector, authorities should also focus on large-scale money laundering taking place in the construction and restaurant sectors and other industries, Costa said.

He was talking to reporters during a meeting of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

In addition to tougher financial crime-fighting measures, Costa called for a "badly needed" global convention to fight cyber crime, which involves the internet as a tool for dealing in drugs, people and arms.

In early April, the Group of 20 leading economies agreed to put increased pressure on tax havens to increase financial transparency.

Countries such as Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland announced already in March they would relax their banking secrecy rules and better comply with international standards on tax evasion probes. (dpa)