Sweden's government has proposed a new law to ban activities that support terrorist organizations, amid delays in the NATO accession process over Turkey's objections.

 This was reported by the Bloomberg agency.

 The law has been five years in the making and is supposed to give the Scandinavian country a new tool to counter Turkey's claims that it is not doing enough to fight terrorism, making Ankara's support for its accession to NATO impossible.

 The law will enter into force on June 1, immediately after the Turkish elections, which are seen as a turning point in the process.

 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is believed to be using the issue as a vote-getter, as well as an attempt to push allies to cooperate with his country in the fight against terrorism.

 According to Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer, who introduced the bill in Stockholm on Thursday, participation in a terrorist organization with the aim of facilitating, strengthening or supporting the group in question would be prohibited.

 "This is a far-reaching law that covers virtually all cases of participation in such activity. The current law requires that the activity be related to a specific act of terrorism to be considered illegal, but this law focuses on participation, making it much broader and stronger." said Strommer.

 The law is based on constitutional amendments that took effect on January 1 and is the culmination of years of work to strengthen terrorism laws. The legislative work began after a truck plowed through Stockholm's main pedestrian shopping street in 2017, killing five people.

 The proposal comes as efforts by Sweden and Finland to join NATO have been blocked by Turkey's refusal to ratify their applications for membership in the alliance. Turkey initially focused its criticism on what it saw as insufficient efforts to combat terrorist groups, but Erdogan's rhetoric has now focused more on an incident in which Danish far-right activist Rasmus Paludan burned a translated copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

 The move prompted Erdogan to block support for Sweden's bid to join NATO, with the Turkish president calling the incident a "hate crime" on Thursday.