UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N. conference on small arms, faced with a hard-line U.S. stance in defense of gun rights, signaled on Friday its willingness to compromise to reach a last-minute agreement on a strategy against global firearms trafficking.
Meeting on the final day of the two-week conference, delegates scrambled behind closed doors to cobble together an effective action plan without crossing a series of ``red lines'' set out by Washington.
``The meeting is expected to go into the evening. Whether they will reach a consensus document remains to be seen,'' a U.N. official said.
Delegates said progress in the past two days was primarily due to concessions to Washington, which insisted from the conference's first day that it could not accept any strategy that did not shield private gun owners, makers and dealers.
Numerous delegates accused the George W. Bush administration of pandering to the U.S. gun lobby including the politically powerful National Rifle Association, but said it was clear there would be no agreement unless they yielded.
The draft action plan sets out a broad plan of national and international measures to crack down on illegal flows of small arms, which the United Nations says were the weapon of choice in 46 of 49 major conflicts since 1990, contributing to some 4 million deaths, 80 percent of them of women and children.
Due to U.S. objections, none of the measures are enforceable under international law. Instead they are merely ''politically binding,'' meaning it will be up to voters in each of the United Nations' 189 member nations to pressure their governments to keep their promises.
STICKING POINTS
The remaining sticking points centered on government sales to rebel groups and other ``non-state actors,'' and how to follow up on conference promises.
While many delegations pressed for the action plan to include an appeal for international negotiations on a treaty on arms brokering, Washington said it would refuse any accord that could lead to a legally binding treaty.
That same U.S. stand had led delegates earlier to give up on appeals for negotiation of an international treaty requiring weapons to be marked when made, to make them easier to trace.
Washington has also insisted that governments be free to sell arms to non-state actors, arguing for the right, for example, to help freedom-fighters battling a genocidal regime.
It also flatly opposed a requirement for a follow-up conference in five years, which most nations favored as a way to pressure governments to keep their promises.
Due to the many compromises even after two years of conference preparations, many said the final action plan, while disappointing, was nonetheless a step in the right direction.
``By no means can I consider this conference a failure,'' said former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard. ``We knew it would be extremely difficult, that national interests would be completely contradictory. So it is a good beginning.''
Delegates earlier resolved a dispute over a thorny issue pitting Israel against Arab nations. A provision put forward by Egypt, in a clear reference to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, reaffirmed all peoples' right of self-determination.
Western nations had feared the provision might appear to encourage groups seeking self-determination to take up arms.
There was agreement on alternate language which Palestinian U.N. envoy Marwan Jilani told Reuters was ``a recognition of the right of people living under foreign occupation to take the required action to realize this right of self-determination.''
PHOTO CAPTION:
Artist Wallis Kendal puts the finishing touches on his gun sculpture entitled 'The Art of Peacemaking' at United Nations headquarters Sunday, July 8, 2001. The exhibit will opened on the 9th of July on the first day of the U.N. Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons. The U.N. conference to curb illegal small arms trafficking entered its second and final week Monday.      (AP Photo/Shawn Baldwin)