Switzerland does not belong on a tax haven "blacklist" and is working to convince partners of its determination to open up its bank secrecy laws, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said yesterday, media reports said.

Swiss authorities have been trying to persuade the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations not to target Switzerland in a crackdown on so-called havens, where foreign investors put billions of dollars out of reach of their home tax authorities.

" Switzerland has no place on a list of tax havens," Ms Calmy-Rey told reporters in Paris after a meeting with French Budget Minister Eric Woerth. " Switzerland is a cooperative country and applies recognised standards."

"It has now taken an additional step which has been welcomed by everybody," she said.

Last week Switzerland, the world's biggest offshore centre - accounting for about a third of this global market - agreed along with other financial centres like Luxembourg and Austria to relax its strict bank secrecy laws and cooperate in some cases of tax evasion.

It had previously shared information with foreign authorities only in cases of outright tax fraud, but decided to expand the cooperation in the face of blacklist threats it feared would hurt its export industries as well as its banks.

The latest Swiss decision is likely to take some time before it is finally implemented as 74 separate joint tax agreements have to be negotiated with other countries.

Opponents of tax havens argue that they encourage the wealthy to dodge legitimate taxpaying obligations and as a result, force less well-off people to pay higher taxes than would be otherwise the case. On the other hand, such havens’ defenders say they encourage potentially high-taxing states to keep their rates down and also provide protection against confiscatory taxes and oppressive regimes.