UN approves renewed debate on arms treaty

Details of the vote were not immediately available, but diplomats said the US voted "yes", as it did in the UN disarmament committee last month. Countries that abstained from last month's vote included Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Belarus, Cuba and Iran.

Russia abstained from voting last month. Britain, France and Germany joined China and the US in the disarmament committee in support of the resolution approved by the General Assembly on Monday.

The draft treaty under consideration does not control the domestic use of weapons in any country, but it would require all countries to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms and to regulate arms brokers.

It would prohibit states that ratify the treaty from transferring conventional weapons if they would violate arms embargoes or if they would promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

In considering whether to authorize the export of arms, the draft says a country must evaluate whether the weapon would be used to violate international human rights or humanitarian laws or be used by terrorists, organized crime or for corrupt practices.

Many countries, including the US, control arms exports, but there has never been an international treaty regulating the estimated $70 billion global arms trade. For more than a decade, activists and some governments have been pushing for international rules to try to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organized crime.

The NRA, which wields huge lobbying power in the US, has portrayed the treaty as a threat to gun ownership rights, which are guaranteed in the US Constitution.

In July, NRA leader Wayne LaPierre told the UN that "the NRA wants no part of any treaty that infringes on the precious right of lawful Americans to keep and bear arms". He added that "any treaty that includes civilian firearms ownership in its scope will be met with the NRA's greatest force of opposition".

Reuters-AP