ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland will be taken off the OECD's list of tax havens after the country signed the required 12th tax deal yesterday, the Swiss finance ministry said.

"With today's signing of the new double taxation agreement with Qatar by President Hans-Rudolf Merz and the Prime Minister of Qatar, Switzerland has been swift to implement the OECD criteria," the finance ministry said in a statement. "Further agreements will follow. Consequently, Switzerland will be removed from the 'grey list' of the OECD Secretariat," it said.

Leaders of the Group of 20 nations agreed to name and shame offshore centers that did not cooperate on tax evasion in April and threatened them with sanctions.

G20 leaders are expected to take stock of progress by offshore centres at a summit in Pittsburgh today.

G20 leaders agreed in April to name and shame offshore centres that did not cooperate on tax evasion and threatened them with sanctions.

That caused political embarrassment for Switzerland and other international offshore centres, which swiftly agreed to relax their bank secrecy rules.

The pressure was particularly high on Switzerland, the biggest offshore centre which manages one third of the world's wealth, at a time when banking giant UBS was facing a tax fraud probe in the United States.

Fear of sanctions pushed Berne to agree for the first time it would share with foreign tax authorities certain bank data on tax evasion matters, a move the local press described at the time as a capitulation.

But this time around Switzerland could take home a political victory if it manages to be removed from the OECD list.

The G20 is expected to take stock of progress by offshore centres at its summit yesterday and today in Pittsburgh.

Many offshore centres, including European Union members Austria and Luxembourg, have already been taken off the 'grey list' in recent weeks, putting pressure on Swiss authorities to act. Bermuda was among the first countries to come off the list.