"This is a very short-term decision for very few profits," said Republican Representative Mark Steven Kirk, who singled out French President Jacques Chirac, saying he was "doing this."

"(It) will create greater insecurity in Asia, lay the seeds for a conflict, and maybe the death of Americans caused by French weapons sold for short-term profits," Kirk said.

The resolution, which passed by a crushing 411-3 majority, calls on President George W. Bush to use his trip to Europe this month to "urge that they (European leaders) reconsider this unwise course of action."

Democratic Representative Tom Lantos decried what he called the "greed driven policy by Europe which was twice liberated by the US."

"The degree of cynicism, the degree of greed displayed by some European leaders turns one's stomach," Lantos said.

"For the new generation of European leaders to turn their backs on American national security interests, and to consider opening up the floodgates of weapons sales to the People's Republic of China, shows that they have truly lost their moral compass," he added.

EU leaders declared in December their "political will" to lift the embargo, while stressing Beijing must respect human rights and regional stability.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said last month the weapons ban, imposed on Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy students, would likely be gone in six months.

In an interview with AFP and Reuters Tuesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterated Washington's opposition to scrapping the weapons ban, saying, "One has to be careful not to send the wrong signal about human rights, and of course we do have concerns about the strategic military considerations."

Rice also said Washington has had a "good dialogue" with the Europeans over the prospect of the EU lifting the embargo and that she found "Europeans open to our concerns and willing to try to understand them and so we'll see how we can address it."

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