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The prospective new international Arms Trade Treaty must regulate the sale of parts and components being used to maintain or manufacture deadly weapons and military equipment, according to a new report by Oxfam.

The poorly regulated global trade in arms and ammunition weakens the ability and willingness of governments to sustain progress in development.

Global sales of ammunition are worth more than $4 billion and are growing at a faster rate than trade in guns, yet there is virtually no regulation in place to control where the bullets end up.

Guns are useless without bullets. An Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that does not control ammunition will not achieve its purposes.

More than $2.2 billion worth of arms and ammunition have been imported since 2000 by countries operating under arms embargoes, according to new figures released today by international humanitarian agency Oxfam.

Baffour Amoa, spokesperson for the Control Arms Coalition said:

The Arms Trade Treaty is a powerful tool in helping prevent weapons transfers to government security forces where there is a likelihood that they will be used to seriously violate international human rights and humanitarian law.

New York : Campaigners today called on governments meeting at the United Nations to ensure no weapons or munitions are sold to human rights abusers. The call came as delegates meet this week to resume negotiations on a global, legally-binding Arms Trade Treaty.

Oxfam deplores the current violence against protestors in Libya which has led to many hundreds of deaths at the hands of the state security forces. 

Arms traffickers can too easily navigate the patchwork of national arms regulations, fuelling conflict while avoiding arrest and extradition, because countries have been too weak or reluctant to pass an international arms trade treaty, says international agency Oxfam.