A Labour government would push for UK overseas territories to be put on an international blacklist if they refused to co-operate with a drive against tax avoidance, Ed Miliband has said.
In a letter to leaders, he said regions would be given six months to compile a public register of offshore companies.
If they failed, they could be put on an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development "tax havens" list.
A Conservative source said the UK was already leading the way on the issue.
In an interview with The Guardian, Mr Miliband also dismissed claims that Labour was anti-business, saying: "There's nothing pro-business about defending tax avoidance."
'Shrouded in darkness'Mr Miliband's letter is being sent to British Overseas Territories - Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar and Montserrat - and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
"I am writing to put you on notice that a Labour government will not allow this situation of delay and secrecy to continue," he wrote.
He told regions they would "have to produce a publicly accessible central register of beneficial ownership" within six months if Labour wins May's general election.
"If any Overseas Territory or Crown Dependency does not meet this deadline, we will ask the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to put them on the OECD's tax haven blacklist," he said.
Leaders from the G20 - made up of 19 of the world's largest economies plus the European Union - have previously agreed to impose sanctions against jurisdictions on the OECD blacklist.
Analysis By Chris Mason, political correspondent, BBC NewsThe premise of Labour's case is to plant an idea in our minds that there's a pot of silver going for the UK Treasury, if only the coalition tried harder. Labour cite research suggesting nearly £5bn a year is lost to the UK Exchequer from tax evasion in offshore financial centres.
It's a lot of money - if it's an accurate estimate - and money they are keen on. But getting to it is unlikely to be easy or quick.
First, the British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories are independent: the UK can't force them to do anything regarding taxation or financial regulation. There is a huge difference between tax evasion, which is illegal and tax avoidance, which is not.
"Blacklisting" is decided by international agreement, the UK can't demand it. We'll be starting an important international conversation and we'll drive through change, Labour says.
A senior government source on one of the islands concerned told me they'd had private meetings with Labour. Senior party figures, the source said, had struck a much more emollient tone then - and dismissed this as the public shouting of an election campaign.
The OECD's "list of unco-operative tax havens" has been empty since 2009, though 38 jurisdictions are on a list of those "committed to improving transparency and establishing effective exchange of information in tax matters".
The territories and dependencies written to by Mr Miliband are all on that list.
Labour argues that overseas territories and crown dependencies could help to stop or stem tax avoidance by showing tax authorities who is diverting money into companies there.
Explaining the proposal, Mr Miliband insisted the UK had a responsibility to open up its territories and dependencies which he said were "held responsible for so much tax secrecy and avoidance".
He told the Guardian: "More than 18 months have passed since David Cameron promised to shine a light on the tax havens in UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies - and their affairs are still shrouded in darkness.
Clampdown"Billions of pounds is being siphoned off into tax havens where our authorities cannot discover even the true ownership of firms registered there, let alone the scale of wealth hidden away."
The prime minister has set up plans to tackle tax evasion.
In June 2013 he announced an agreement between the UK's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to sign up to a tax evasion clampdown.
The islands and outposts all agreed to sign up to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters - an initiative led by the OECD.
They also agreed to publish national action plans on beneficial ownership, detailing the true owners of so-called "shell" companies.
A Conservative source told the BBC: "[Ed] Miliband wants the OECD to put crown dependencies and overseas territories on a blacklist for not having a public central register - even though the UK is the only country in the OECD that is committed to producing a public central register.
"Is he really asking the OECD to put a handful of countries on a blacklist, even though they are acting in the same way as every other member of the OECD - apart from the UK? Or is [Mr] Miliband expecting the OECD to blacklist countries like the US, Germany and France too?"
The source added that the UK was leading the way on this issue by committing to a public central register - and by launching a drive to get crown dependencies and overseas territories to follow suit.
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