The MOF officials were joined at the meeting by representatives of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) - a leading example of an SWF.

A major talking point was a proposed commitment that SWFs will invest outside their home countries based on commercial, and not political, motivations.

The meeting last Thursday was part of 'delicate global negotiations' to draft rules that will oversee the behaviour of SWFs, without discouraging them from investing in the US, Canada and Europe, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Apart from the Singapore delegation, the US officials - led by Mr Clay Lowery, assistant secretary for international affairs - also met executives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the world's biggest SWF with assets of about US$900 billion (S$1.26 trillion), it added.

'We confirm that MOF was also present at the meeting in Abu Dhabi,' said an MOF spokesman yesterday, in response to queries from The Straits Times. 'Singapore welcomes this opportunity to be engaged so that we can put across our perspective of how GIC and Temasek Holdings make their investments and to reiterate the importance of an open investment environment in this globalised world.'

Mr David McCormick, the US Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs, told the Journal that 'the two funds are some of the most mature, well-known and credible sovereign wealth funds'.

'We are actively trying to have many conversations' with different funds, he added.

Suspicion over government-owned investment funds has been rising in recent years as they grow in number and stature.

As their combined assets swell to an estimated US$3 trillion, governments from both sides of the Atlantic have called for greater transparency by the funds, despite their recent cash infusions into several Western banks that had been hit badly by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Both Europe and the US are supporting an International Monetary Fund (IMF) effort to put together a voluntary code of conduct, due later this year, for these funds.

Ahead of this, the European Commission is expected to propose its own set of ground rules this week. The US Treasury meeting appears to be an attempt to push forward the IMF effort.

'Discussions are obviously useful,' IMF first deputy managing director John Lipsky said. The IMF was not involved in the talks. Mr Lipsky said the IMF wants to help the funds reach consensus on issues such as transparency, governance, disclosure and fund organisation.

The funds' practices vary widely. Norway's fund, for example, makes detailed disclosures of purchases but Abu Dhabi's publishes none.

The Journal said the Abu Dhabi and Singapore funds are considered significant, given their size, the difference in their sources of capital - Abu Dhabi's comes from oil, Singapore's from export revenues - and their unwillingness thus far to disclose much about their operations.

GIC deputy chairman Tony Tan said last month that the fund and the MOF were working on a document that would give more data on the processes, governance and purposes for its investments. This might be made public in the second quarter of this year.

GIC would also report the rate of return on its investments more regularly, he said.

bryanlee@sph.com.sg