UNITED NATIONS — Al-Qaeda is developing new ways of funneling money to fund its terror operations and taking other steps to get around international sanctions, the head of the UN’s sanctions committee said yesterday. In particular, they are avoiding bank transfers that can be traced and are either no longer using front companies or getting better at hiding them, Chile’s UN ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, said.

“They are being creative about this,” said Munoz, who recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Indonesia.

He said Al-Qaeda had “adapted and become more dangerous” in the face of the UN’s sanctions against the organization and the Taleban, the hard-liners who ruled Afghanistan until a US war ousted them in 2001. Munoz said much of the money to fund terror operations was now transferred by the hawala system, an informal but personal and highly efficient network of contacts that allows most transactions to be completed in one day.

Meanwhile, an Arabic magazine reported yesterday that an Al-Qaeda leader said in an e-mail sent before the latest string of bombings in Iraq that the terrorist network was preparing devastating attacks against Americans during Ramadan. The Al-Majalla weekly has published statements in the past from the purported Al-Qaeda operative, Abu Mohammed Al-Ablaj.

Al-Qaeda “is getting ready to stage devastating attacks during the month of Ramadan against Americans that will make young boys’ hair turn gray,” said the e-mail, whose authenticity could not immediately be verified. It added attacks in Iraq were possible.