The United States on Tuesday put monetary muscle behind its vehement opposition to the International Criminal Court

The United States on Tuesday put monetary muscle behind its vehement opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC), suspending more than US$47 million in military aid to 35 countries for their failure or refusal to give US citizens immunity from the tribunal. The suspension affects US allies like Brazil, Colombia and South Africa, the Baltic states as well as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) ATO hopefuls such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia, officials said. However, they stressed that Washington would continue to press these nations to sign immunity deals, so-called "Article 98" agreements, with the United States so that the assistance could be restored. "Our hope is to continue to work with governments to secure and ratify Article 98 agreements that protect American service members from arbitrary or political prosecution by the international court," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. The United States fears the court, the world's first permanent international court to try cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, could become a forum for politically motivated prosecutions of US citizens and has been on a worldwide campaign to sign immunity deals. Under US law, most of the 90 countries that signed and ratified the Treaty of Rome, which created the ICC, had until July 1 deadline to ink Article 98 deals with the United States or face the sanctions. The 19 members of Nato, as well as the US-designated "major non-Nato allies" -- Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, New Zealand, South Korea and soon, the Philippines -- were exempted from the threat of sanctions as was Taiwan. Those nations not receiving automatic exemptions that receive US military aid could avoid the suspension by signing Article 98 pacts, which some 51 nations have done, 44 publicly and seven secretly, according to officials.