Australia is one of the world's major money laundering countries and home to terrorist cells involved in fundraising, according to a US government report.

However, Australia is also praised in the document - called the 2015 International Narcotics Control Strategy - because of the federal government's system to detect, prevent and prosecute money laundering.

The annual State Department report lists Australia with more than 60 other nations, including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Brazil, Russia, the UK, US and China, as major money laundering countries.

A major money laundering country is defined as one whose financial institutions engage in currency transactions involving significant amounts of proceeds from international narcotics trafficking.

The report points to the Australian Crime Commission's conservative estimate that serious and organised crime costs Australia close to $15 billion each year.