In a letter to fellow United Nations members, Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan and Kenya said they wanted to draw up a global treaty to regulate the international arms trade.

The treaty would help to "prevent, combat and eradicate" the supply of arms "which would be likely to increase crime, conflict and terrorism and displacement of people," according to a draft resolution proposed by the seven.

"Our governments consider that the idea of an Arms Trade Treaty is one whose time has come," wrote the UN representatives of the group.

The resolution calling for the establishment of a group of experts who would try to pin down the scope of a treaty will be put to a key UN committee during the General Assembly meeting in October, a western diplomatic source said.

The arms experts would hopefully be able to work on the treaty through 2007.

However, there was no target date for completion because of the "difficult issues" surrounding the global arms trade and the "emotive and quite contentious" nature of the detail, the source added.

China and Russia had been "supportive" of the principle of a treaty, but the US reaction was at best "hesitant", partly under the influence of the strong domestic gun lobby in the United States, the source said.

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