It endorsed a resolution urging UN member states to consider how to implement "the highest possible standards to prevent the diversion of conventional arms from the legal to the illicit market, where they can be used for terrorist acts, organized crime and other criminal activities."

Some 147 countries in the Assembly's disarmament committee supported the text, 18 abstained while only the United States and Zimbabwe voted against.

The British-drafted resolution decided to set up an open-ended working group to meet for up to six one-week sessions starting next year. Two sessions are planned to be held in New York next March and July.

Britain's UN Ambassador John Sawers welcomed adoption of the text and expressed hope that the next US administration will reconsider its opposition to the proposed Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) "to ensure that the arms trade lives up to standards we believe all responsible exporting countries should aspire to."

He noted that even US arms companiea were coming around to the idea that an arms treaty would be good for their image and their bottom line.

Explaining her no vote, US delegate Christina Rocca said: "We support the goal of promoting responsibility in arms transfers and reducing the destabilizing trade in illicit arms, but we do not believe a global Arms Trade Treaty would accomplish that goal."

"Any ATT would require the support of the major arms exporters to be effective, and we believe that some major arms exporters would refuse to agree to an ATT that required meaningful, effective conventional arms transfer controls policies," she added.

She said that concluding "a weak ATT would legitimize an international standard based on a lowest common denominator that would not address the problem of illicit and irresponsible arms transfers."

Brian Wood, a spokesman for London-based Amnesty International, said that Friday's "big vote moves the world closer to an Arms Trade Treaty with respect for human rights at its heart."

"It is shameful that the US and Zimbabwe governments have taken an unprincipled stand today against a treaty that would save so many lives and livelihoods," he added in a statement.

Anna Macdonald said on behalf of the non-governmental organization Oxfam International that the vote "is one step closer to turning off the running tap of irresponsible arms transfers which have flooded the world's conflict zones for decades, fueling death, injury and poverty."

Earlier this week, visiting British ambassador for arms control and disarmament John Duncan told reporters here that the ATT was a "very new idea," akin to the Kimberley process regulating the diamond trade.

The Kimberley scheme, which was launched in 2003 and is named after a diamond mining city in South Africa, aims to keep diamonds from financing wars via a certification initiative.

Earlier this month, South Africa's retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu pleaded with UN member states to back the proposed ATT.

"You can and must act to control the deadly trade in weapons that is behind these deaths. There can be no further delay ... It is time to end the slaughter," he then said in a message to UN missions which was delivered by activists of the Control Arms campaign, a strong backer of the ATT.

The campaign was launched five years ago by Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms.

In December 2006, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution launching the process for the ATT with the goal of preventing arms transfers that fuel conflicts and serious human rights violations around the world.

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