THE global trade in weapons - which has allowed brutal regimes to kill thousands of innocents - should be stopped with a new law, according to York MP Hugh Bayley.

He is helping to pilot a Bill through Parliament calling for an international treaty on the arms trade to be agreed by 2006.

Tough rules on the sale of arms already exist in Britain, but many countries have no restrictions.

There are also a series of loopholes - allowing a UK firm to set up a subsidiary business in a country with no laws.

This has led to a proliferation of weapons in some of the world's poorest nations.

Mr Bayley said they are used by dictators, such as former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, to repress and kill citizens.

There is now a gun for every ten people in the world. In Iraq, there are more guns than people - which has been blamed for some of the post-Saddam chaos and killing.

Mr Bayley told the Evening Press: "The global arms trade is dangerously unregulated. The whole world needs to learn lessons from the war in Iraq - but that country is not the only abuser of human rights.

"An international arms trade treaty is needed to stop the flow of arms to all abusive regimes."

The Bill, which received its first reading in the Commons earlier this week, has been tabled by Tory MP Tony Baldry. Mr Bayley has formally agreed to help with the legislation's passage through Parliament.

Mr Baldry, a former Minister, branded the AK-47 rifle - originally produced by the Soviet Union and now said to be the most widespread weapon in the world - a "weapon of mass destruction", which had left hundreds of thousands of families "living in daily fear of armed violence".

But he said: "Despite the damage that many small arms and conventional weapons cause, there is still no binding, comprehensive, international law to control the export of conventional weapons."

The treaty would outlaw arms exports to places where they could be used "to commit grave violations of international human rights".

Governments would be required to report all arms traded to an international registry.

Updated: 10:47 Friday, May 07, 2004