France wants gun sale compromise

France has urged the United States to ease its opposition to the regulation of small arms sales, in order to rescue from failure a United Nations conference on trade in firearms.

The Americans want the conference to focus on the illegal trade in military-style weapons only, and not firearms such as pistols and hunting rifles.

But the French Cooperation Minister, Charles Josselin, said the US position was a misunderstanding.

He said the conference did not want to ban the ownership of small arms - only to control their illicit sale and export.

The United Nations says the illegal trade in small arms causes the death of at least a-thousand people each day, around the world.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service