09/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - "The fight against corruption in defence-related material is a priority of the Swedish EU presidency", reaffirmed the Swedish secretary of state, Lotta Fodge, last Friday at a conference organized by Transparency International in Cambridge. "Our long-term aim must be to ensure that ethical trade in defence material brings with it a comparative advantage rather than a disadvantage", she asserted. The impact of this type of corruption on the developing countries was one of the leading topics for this conference which was a follow-up of a seminar on the same subject held in Stockholm in February of last year. "We would truly like to see parliaments get involved in this continuous process", she continued, adding that they could "play a more important role in fighting corruption in the arms trade." Mrs. Fodge also invited the defence industry to come up with ethical rules for its activities.