QUITO, (Reuters) – Ecuador yesterday protested its  “perverse” inclusion on a list of nations accused of failing to  comply with standards against money-laundering and terrorism  financing.

The Financial Action Task Force, an international organization  comprising governments and regional groups, named Ecuador this  week along with Iran, Angola, North Korea and Ethiopia in a list  of nations posing risks to the global financial system.

“We completely reject this perverse insinuation,” Foreign  Minister Ricardo Patino told a news conference.

Patino said Ecuador had received international praise for  measures to regulate its financial system, and rich nations who  are judging poorer countries on their record should first put  their own house in order.

“We honestly do not think the nations of the North have the  moral authority to put us on that list. Let’s see in the future  who should be on that list,” he said. “Where are the proceeds  of narco-trafficking laundered? Not in Ecuador’s little  banks.” Without going into more details, the Paris-based task force  said yesterday that Ecuador had not “constructively engaged”  with it and had not committed to global standards on fighting  money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism  standards.”

Patino said President Rafael Correa’s leftist government  had declined to fill in a questionnaire it was sent on grounds  of national dignity. “We do not take orders from them.”