Liechtenstein has agreed to ease its strict bank secrecy law by committing to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development standards on tax transparency and data exchange, a fresh sign that a global crackdown on tax evasion is forcing offshore centres to open up, according to Reuters.

The European principality, a financial centre wedged between Switzerland and Austria, is seeking to be removed from a black list of tax havens and will now offer bilateral tax deals for cooperating in cases of tax fraud and tax evasion. It said it had already started concrete talks with individual states.

Coming on the heels of a landmark tax co-operation deal with the US in December, the move by Liechtenstein was a fresh attempt to clean the country's image after a damaging data theft scandal that engulfed its largest bank LGT last year.

"Our bank secrecy has always served to ensure the legitimate protection of the privacy of the citizen, which we will continue to retain," Prime Minister Otmar Hasler said in a statement.

"With this declaration, however, we want to make clear that bank client confidentiality in future cannot be misused to facilitate tax crime," Mr Hasler said.

The principality is also offering to sign agreements that go beyond the OECD standards provided that clients of its banks holding secret accounts can be allowed to bring their money on-shore and meet their tax obligations in an orderly manner.

Liechtenstein's new commitment comes just weeks before a meeting of the G20 nations on 2 April that is due to discuss the fight against tax havens among other matters and could add pressure on neighbouring Switzerland, the world's largest offshore centre.

Meanwhile, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and many offshore finance centers could face intensified pressure to reduce bank secrecy and shake the tax haven label as G20 leaders seek to reform the global financial system.

The OECD has supplied governments with a long list of places where bank secrecy rules are deemed undesirable, and those three countries plus others feature prominently in OECD records.

"We've made information available to the G20," a spokesman for the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said yesterday. "It's up to the G20 to decide what to do with it now."