The Netherlands yesterday expressed surprise at US President Barack Obama's qualification of the Netherlands as a "tax haven”, media reports said.

The Dutch Finance Ministry reacted with astonishment to the list presented by Mr Obama on Monday, which names the Netherlands as one of the world's top three corporate tax havens, together with Bermuda and Ireland.

A spokesperson for the Dutch government said the finance ministry is working with its US colleagues to trace the origin of this misunderstanding and remove it, reports said.

The US president presented proposals to curb the tax benefits enjoyed by companies and wealthy individuals placing cash in offshore accounts, including in the Netherlands.

The move comes after the Group of 20 major industrialised and emerging market nations pledged to crack down on so-called tax havens and draw up a list of those jurisdictions deemed not to co-operate with rooting out tax evaders. In countries such as Switzerland, bankers have accused G20 powers such as the UK of hypocrisy as they operate offshore financial services as well.

Mr Obama didn't name the Netherlands in his speech, but a fact-sheet distributed to journalists said nearly one-third of all foreign profits reported by such corporations in 2003 came from three low-tax countries: Bermuda, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The Dutch embassy in Washington has expressed surprise at such accusations. "This is factually not correct," the embassy said in a statement to US media.

"Dutch corporate taxation is fully transparent and the rate is 25.5 per cent, which puts us in the medium-tax rate category and not in the low-tax category," it said.