In 2006, the latest year for available data from 53 countries, the United States imported 59 percent of the $2.9 billion global exports.

The United States also imported 42 percent of all exported sporting and hunting shotguns and rifles, noted the annual "Small Arms Survey 2009: Shadows of War" from the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

A demand for handguns is driving the trade in small arms and light weapons estimated to have grown by 28 percent between 2000 and 2006.

Small-caliber ammunition of less than 14.5mm had the highest growth, increasing 33 percent to $183 million during the six years.

The annual report compiles customs data from national governments as far as they are willing to reply to information requests and from what is in the public domain including U.N. statistics, the report notes.

"Current data show that the global trade in small arms and light weapons is robust and even expanding, and that handguns are driving it," Keith Krause, program director for the survey, said in a written statement.

"We don't know whether these weapons are destined for civilians, police or military forces. But it is striking that handguns have outpaced all other small arms and light weapons over the period."

The top exporters with sales of more than $100 million are, according to available customs data, the United States followed by Italy, Germany, Brazil, Austria and Belgium.

The top importers, after the United States, are France, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Germany and Australia.

The report's Transparency Barometer data identify Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Serbia and the United States as countries with import and export data most easily accessible.

The least transparent major exporters are Iran and North Korea.

Each annual report analyses several case studies of conflict resolution. The 2009 report places Aceh, the semiautonomous territory of 4 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra Island within the Indonesian federation, at risk of renewed fighting.

The Jakarta government had been battling an ill-defined insurgency in the area since the 1970s when mainly U.S. oil and gas companies began exploiting reserves. Indonesian troops were sent in during the 1980s to quell riots over distribution-of-wealth issues that resulted in a Free Aceh Movement for the 99 percent Muslim population.

But the will of the movement was broken by repressive military measures and the major Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004 that triggered a devastating tsunami wave killing a quarter of a million people. Aceh was the closest land point to the earthquake's epicenter.

Peace talks in 2005 brokered by the Finnish Crisis Management Initiative and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari resulted in a cease-fire that has held up well, the small-arms report said. Many former combatants have jobs and accept local political institutions.

However, there is an issue over the government handing out money to former combatants and organizations as compensation. Who gets what isn't transparent.

"The provision of cash without technical assistance has also prevented the productive use of funds," the report noted.

"Furthermore, the lack of transparency in fund distribution has increased dissatisfaction with the local government. Given that a lack of state legitimacy drove the conflict, the approach could accentuate risks of conflict resumption."

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