Strasbourg, 19/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 15 June, MEPs adopted a resolution in which they clearly call on the international community to begin talks with a view to establishing an international treaty regulating the trade in small arms and light weapons (SALW). The meeting was voted in the run-up to the conference on revision of the United Nations action plan on small arms scheduled to take place in New York from 26 June to 7 July. MEPs called on the international community to hold talks at the United Nations relating to a treaty on the international arms trade with a view to a legally binding instrument that would regulate arms transfers when these are of a kind that contribute to human rights violations or to crimes against humanity or which promote instability at regional and national levels as well as armed conflicts. MEPs also called on States taking part at the 2006 Conference to establish SALW programmes and measures to be duly integrated into international, regional and national development strategies and the fight against poverty. They recommended that governments: - “ban the unauthorised possession and use” by civilians of SALW, automatic or semi-automatic guns and machine guns; - set in place information and exchange programmes between States that wish to cooperate in the field of controlling SALW possession by civilians; - and endeavour to reduce the excessive and undesirable demand for SALW within society. EP President Josep Borrell mainly called for the resolution to be passed on to the Council and Commission, to Member State governments and parliaments as well as to the United Nations Secretary General. Six million weapons are in circulation and cause the death of over 500,000 persons annually, that is, one person every minute.