国际英语新闻:Russia regards U.N. arms trade treaty as insufficient

MOSCOW, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.N. conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is the first yet insufficient move toward the solution to the global problem of uncontrolled weapons proliferation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

"Russia has initiated a principally new article (of the ATT) with the aim to prevent and terminate arms smuggling to illegal markets. A substantial number of delegations have sided with that initiative," the ministry said on its official website.

Moscow recognizes the importance of the signatories' obligation to create an efficient system to control conventional arms supply, but holds that the obligation has not been supported by particular measures which would prevent the arms from falling into the wrong hands.

"As a whole, the document's standards fall short of those used in Russia and many other countries. This is why Russia expressed doubts in the efficiency of that international tool and said it could not support it currently," the ministry said.

The U.N. Conference on the ATT was held in New York on March 18-28. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Iran and Syria, on Thursday scuttled hopes for the first international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) at the United Nations by objecting to the draft.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his "deep disappointment" with the failure to adopt the treaty.