WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has asserted that Syria continues to harbor a key financier of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

The Bush administration said Syria has granted haven to a former Iraqi Baath Party official identified as a financier of the insurgency in Iraq. Officials said the Iraqi arrived in Syria in 2003 after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime.

The Iraqi, identified as Muhammad Yunis Ahmad, was said to have been working with other former Baath Party members to direct and fund the Sunni insurgency. Officials said Ahmad was identified as one of the key insurgency leaders sought by the U.S. military. They said he has been shuttling between the Syrian cities of Bludan and Damascus.

"Ahmad is first among the U.S. Central Command's list of key insurgent leaders, and the Multi National Forces in Iraq are offering a reward of $1 million for information leading to his capture," Robert Werner, the director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said.