Companies that have been hit with fines, ranging from $500 to $250,000, include internet pioneer Amazon.com, baseball team the New York Yankees and supermarket giant Walmart, according to BBC News Online.

The fines were imposed by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) which imposes sanctions against terrorists, drug dealers and foreign countries and is responsible for freezing the US assets of suspects.

Ofac has come in for heavy criticsm as no details have been given about who the companies actually traded with, nor is any reason given for the size of the fines.

Currently the US has implemented sanctions against Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, North Korea, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Zimbabwe.