While the CIA maintains that the bombings were carried out by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden's men or groups allied to him, the FBI has taken a different stand with its director Louis J Freeh declaring on Friday in Nairobi that he had come to ``no final conclusions'' about who bombed the two embassies.

``We have made no final conclusions and are at a fairly primitive stage. The investigation is only two-weeks old,'' Freeh said when asked whether bin Laden was connected to the embassy attacks.

In a related move, the Government has decided to crackdown on the financial pipeline feeding bin Laden's Afghanistan-based network. ``It's high time that those who traffic in terror learn they, too, are vulnerable,'' President Bill Clinton declaredyesterday.

In his weekly radio address, Clinton revealed he has signed an executive order putting bin Laden's Islamic army and two of his main lieutenants on a list of terrorist groups. The move allows the Treasury Department to block all financial transactions between US companies or individuals and the Saudi-born millionaire sworn to hit American targets everywhere.

Meanwhile, the police has placed concrete barriers around the Washington monument and were searching tourists' bags because of heightened security following US missile attacks on alleged terrorist sites in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Spokesman John Loveland said the barriers were put up because the monument is among the capital's few major public memorials that a vehicle can park near.

Another National Park service spokesman, Lee Werst, said officials had been considering installation of barriers to keep away traffic as part of the monument's restoration project scheduled to end in 2000.

``Scaffolding is going up before too long, and wewant to have a little larger safety zone,'' he said. Possible security threats because of Thursday's missile strikes advanced the schedule, he said.

Manual bag checks by Park police began on Friday, Werst said. ``That is definitely because of increased security due to those international events,'' he said. But he added, ``everything is just precautionary.''