Venezuela's Maduro gets firm Brazilian backing, trade

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro got strong backing from regional heavyweight Brazil on Thursday on a tour of South American allies to cement his legitimacy as political heir to the late Hugo Chavez.

The clear endorsement from the largest and most influential Latin American nation will strengthen Maduro's grip on power following his contested election in the oil-producing nation last month.

"We wish you great success with your presidential mandate and your government," Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said after a meeting in which she promised Venezuela food supplies, expanded trade and cooperation in the oil and gas sector.

Maduro announced that Brazilian construction and engineering conglomerate Odebrecht will build a 1.5-million-tonne-a-year urea plant in Venezuela. He said Brazil and Venezuela agreed to strengthen military ties.

Maduro met earlier with former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose moderate leftist government backed Chavez's socialist revolution but did not share his anti-U.S. policies and rhetoric.

Rousseff said she offered Maduro the same level of close relations that she and Lula had with Chavez.

In private, though, Rousseff was expected to advise Maduro to tone down his aggressive rhetoric against his opponents for the sake of political stability, said a diplomat who was briefed ahead of the meeting.

Rousseff delivered a similar message to Maduro on the need to treat the opposition better at a regional meeting on the eve of his April 19 inauguration, the diplomat said. Following that meeting, Venezuela's electoral authority announced that it would conduct an audit of the election results, which is still underway.

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost the April 14 vote to Maduro by less than two percentage points, insists the election was stolen and has demanded a full recount. He is now contesting the result in the nation's top court.

If there were any doubts about Maduro's legitimacy in Brasilia, they were not evident in public during his visit. Only four protesters stood outside the Planalto presidential palace, one carrying a sign that said: "Maduro: Presidente ilegitimo."

Maduro arrived in Brasilia from visiting the leaders of Uruguay and Argentina, which along with Brazil are members of the South American trade bloc that Venezuela joined last year.

While almost every nation in the Americas has recognized Maduro's election as Chavez's successor following the leftist leader's death from cancer in March, the region's nations are anxious to avoid Venezuela sinking into chaos.

Brazil has a commercial stake in the political and economic stability of its neighbor to the north: Venezuela is the second largest market after Argentina for Brazilian manufactured goods.

Industrial goods make up two-thirds of Brazilian exports to the Venezuelan market, handing Brazil a sizeable surplus in its trade with Venezuela that has expanded seven-fold in the last decade to $6 billion last year.

(Reporting by Peter Murphy, Brian Winter and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Former GM engineer, husband sentenced in trade secret theft case

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - A former General Motors Co engineer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and her husband was sentenced to three years for conspiring to steal trade secrets for use in China, federal prosecutors said.

Former engineer Shanshan Du, 54, and her husband Yu Qin, 52, each received sentences well below the roughly eight to 10 years that the government had sought. Both were sentenced on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani in Detroit.

Both defendants are U.S. citizens, and their case is part of a crackdown by the U.S. Department of Justice on trade secret theft, whether involving China or other countries.

Last November, a federal jury convicted Du and Qin on two counts each of unauthorized possession of trade secrets and one count of conspiracy to possess the secrets without permission.

Qin was also convicted on three counts of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.

The defendants had been accused of taking confidential GM information from the Detroit-based automaker related to hybrid vehicles, and trying to pass it to competitors, including China's Chery Automobile Co, through their firm Millennium Technology International.

Investigators accused Du of copying more than 16,000 GM files soon after the automaker in January 2005 gave her a severance offer. They said Qin later claimed, while pitching his services, to have invented some of the stolen GM technology.

"These defendants stole trade secrets, which General Motors spent many years and millions of dollars to develop, to give an unfair advantage to a foreign competitor," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade in Detroit said in a statement. "Stealing trade secrets harms Michigan businesses and costs jobs."

Prosecutors said GM has estimated that the value of the stolen documents exceeded $40 million. The defendants had argued that the documents in question were not trade secrets.

"I'm pleased that the judge went below the sentencing guidelines, and took into consideration Mr. Qin's contributions to the engineering field, his respect in that field, and his remorse," Qin's lawyer Frank Eaman said in an interview. He nonetheless said he was planning to appeal the conviction.

A lawyer for Du did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. McQuade's office was not immediately available for comment.

The case is U.S. v. Qin et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, No. 10-cr-02454.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)

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U.N. overwhelmingly approves global arms trade treaty

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.

The National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group that has opposed the treaty from the start, said it was a sad day for the United States, which joined the vast majority of U.N. member states by voting for the pact.

Iran, Syria and North Korea cast the sole votes against the treaty. The same three states last week prevented a treaty-drafting conference at U.N. headquarters from reaching the required consensus to adopt the pact.

The official U.N. tally showed 154 votes in favor, three against 23 abstentions, though diplomats and U.N. officials said the actual vote was 155-3-22. They said Angola was recorded as having abstained, though it had attempted to vote yes.

Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, while Syria's government is embroiled in a two-year civil war and relies on arms from Russia and Iran, envoys said.

North Korea is also under a U.N. arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the vote, saying the treaty "will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms."

The treaty will be open for signature on June 3 and will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it. Mexican U.N. Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba told reporters it normally takes two to three years for a treaty to come into force, but said he hoped it would happen sooner in this case.

Major arms producers China and Russia joined Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and other countries in abstaining. Although a significant number of countries abstained, putting the treaty to a General Assembly vote was the only way its supporters could get it adopted after the treaty conference collapsed last week.

NRA: 'A SAD, YET TELLING, DAY'

Many of the countries that abstained, among them India, complained the treaty favored exporting over importing states. Russia said Moscow would take a hard look at the treaty before deciding whether to sign it.

Several delegates told Reuters the treaty's effectiveness would be limited if major arms exporters refused to sign it.

The United States, the world's No. 1 arms exporter, voted in favor of the treaty despite fierce opposition from the NRA, whose lobbying wing - the NRA Institute for Legislative Action - issued a statement condemning the U.N. vote.

"This treaty disregards the Second Amendment to our Constitution and threatens individual firearm ownership," said Chris Cox, head of the NRA-ILA. "It is a sad, yet telling, day when the president of the United States and his administration refuse to defend America's Constitution on the world stage."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement the U.N. adopted "a strong, effective and implementable Arms Trade Treaty that can strengthen global security while protecting the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade."

"Nothing in this treaty could ever infringe on the rights of American citizens under our domestic law or the Constitution, including the Second Amendment," he added, referring to the U.S. Constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to bear arms.

The NRA has vowed to fight to prevent the treaty's ratification by the U.S. Senate when it reaches Washington.

Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari repeated that his government opposes the arms trade treaty because it does not ban the sale of weapons to non-state actors and "terrorists" like those it says are active in Syria. The civil war there has claimed at least 70,000 lives, according to U.N. estimates.

Syria routinely refers to rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad as "terrorists" backed by foreign governments.

The treaty does not ban transfers to armed groups, but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first.

British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the vote as a "landmark agreement that will save lives and ease the immense human suffering caused by armed conflict around the world."

SCRUTINY ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Mexico issued a statement on behalf of 98 U.N. member states saying, "an effective implementation of this treaty will make a real difference for the people of the world."

U.N. member states began meeting on March 18 in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.

Arms control activists and rights groups have said a treaty was needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

The Arms Trade Treaty aims to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure that arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

"The agreement of the Arms Trade Treaty sends a clear message to arms dealers who supply warlords and dictators that their time is up," said Anna Macdonald of the global development group Oxfam.

The main reason the arms trade talks took place at all is that the United States, the world's biggest arms trader, reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support a treaty.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Paul Simao, Stacey Joyce, Todd Eastham and Lisa Shumaker)

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U.N. overwhelmingly approves global arms trade treaty

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday the first-ever treaty on global arms trade that seeks to regulate the $70 billion international business in conventional arms ranging from light weapons to battle tanks and warships.

There were 154 votes in favor, 3 against and 23 abstentions.

Iran, Syria and North Korea last week prevented a treaty-drafting conference at U.N. headquarters from reaching the required consensus to adopt the treaty. That left delegations that support it no choice but to turn to a General Assembly vote to adopt it.

The treaty will be open for signature June 3 and will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it.

Major arms producers China and Russia joined Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and other countries in abstaining. A number of countries complained that the treaty favors exporting over importing states.

The United States, the world's No. 1 arms exporter, said last week it would vote in favor of the treaty despite opposition from the National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group.

The NRA opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification by the U.S. Senate when it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights, a view the U.S. government rejects.

Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari repeated that his government opposes the arms trade treaty because it does not ban the sale of weapons to non-state actors and "terrorists" like the ones active in Syria, where a two-year-old civil war has claimed at least 70,000 lives, according to U.N. estimates.

Syria routinely refers to rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad as "terrorists" supported by foreign governments.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Philip Barbara)

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Iran, North Korea, Syria block U.N. arms trade treaty

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday prevented the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, complaining that it was flawed and failed to ban weapons sales to rebel groups.

To get around the blockade, a number governments called on Peter Woolcott of Australia, the president of the U.N. Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, to submit the draft treaty to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and request a swift vote on it in the General Assembly.

U.N. diplomats said the 193-nation General Assembly could put the draft treaty to a vote as early as Tuesday. Britain supported the call for an assembly vote on the draft very soon.

"A good, strong treaty has been blocked," Britain's chief delegate Joanne Adamson said. "Most people in the world want regulation and those are the voices that need to be heard."

"This is success deferred," she added.

United Nations member states began meeting last week in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.

Arms control activists and human rights groups say a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

Delegates to the treaty-drafting conference said on Wednesday they were close to a deal to approve the treaty, but cautioned that Iran and other countries might attempt to block it. Iran, Syria and North Korea did just that, blocking the required consensus for it to pass.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had told Iran's Press TV that Tehran supports the arms trade treaty. But Iranian U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told the conference that he could not accept the treaty in its current form.

"The achievement of such a treaty has been rendered out of reach due to many legal flaws and loopholes," he said. "It is a matter of deep regret that genuine efforts of many countries for a robust, balanced and non-discriminatory treaty were ignored."

One of those flaws was its failure to ban sales of weapons to groups that commit "acts of aggression," ostensibly referring to rebel groups, he said. The current draft does not ban transfers to armed groups but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first.

U.S. DEMANDED CONSENSUS RULE

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari echoed the Iranian concerns, saying he also objected to the fact that it does not prohibit weapons transfers to rebel groups.

"Unfortunately our national concerns were not taken into consideration," he said. "It can't be accepted by my country."

A North Korean delegate voiced similar complaints, suggesting it was a discriminatory treaty: "This (treaty) is not balanced."

Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, diplomats said. Syria is in a two-year-old civil war and hopes Russian and Iranian arms keep flowing in, they added.

North Korea is also under a U.N. arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The U.S. delegation said it would have voted for the treaty. Russia and China made clear they would not have blocked it but have serious reservations about the text and its failure to get consensus. A Russian delegate told the conference that Moscow would have to think hard about signing it if it is approved.

If adopted by the General Assembly, the pact will need to be signed and ratified by at least 50 states to enter into force.

Several diplomats and human rights groups that have lobbied hard in favor of the treaty complained that the requirement of consensus for the pact to pass was something that the United States insisted on years ago. That rule gave every U.N. member state the ability to veto the draft treaty.

"The world has been held hostage by three states," said Anna Macdonald, an arms control expert at humanitarian agency Oxfam. "We have known all along that the consensus process was deeply flawed and today we see it is actually dysfunctional."

"Countries such as Iran, Syria and DPRK (North Korea) should not be allowed to dictate to the rest of the world how the sale of weapons should be regulated," she added.

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

The main reason the arms trade talks took place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms exporter - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support an arms treaty.

The U.S. demand that the conference be run on the basis of consensus was because Washington wanted to be able to block any treaty that undermined the U.S. constitutional right to bear arms, a sensitive political issue in the United States.

The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group, opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification if it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobby group, has said that the treaty would not impact the right to bear arms.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Will Dunham and Lisa Shumaker)

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Two congressmen urge USTR designate China for trade secret theft

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senior Democrats in the House of Representatives on Thursday urged the Obama administration to formally target China for the theft of U.S. trade secrets, a move they said could lead to duties on Chinese goods if U.S. concerns are not addressed.

"As evidence mounts that the Government of China actively engages in the cyber theft of the trade secrets of American businesses, we write to request that you consider designating China as a Priority Foreign Country under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974," the lawmakers said.

The letter from Representatives Sander Levin and Charles Rangel urged the Trade Representative's office to take the action when it issues the annual report on intellectual property protection on April 30.

Their recommendation is the latest sign of congressional frustration with alleged widespread theft of U.S. company trade secrets by competitors in China through both cyber attacks and more conventional means of economic espionage.

"It looks very much as though the Chinese government is stealing our companies' trade secrets and passing them along to their SOEs (state-owned enterprises), and possibly other Chinese companies," Levin and Rangel, the top two Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a letter to acting Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis.

"It is difficult enough for our companies to compete with the endless massive subsidies and other industrial policies of the Chinese government, but add trade secret theft into the mix and it is miraculous that our companies are able to compete at all," they added.

The White House last month rolled out a new strategy to tackle to trade-secret theft included greater use of existing U.S. trade tools, like the U.S. Trade Representative's annual report on countries with the worst records of protecting U.S. intellectual property rights.

USTR rarely designates any "priority foreign country" in that report. The category is reserved for those nations with the most onerous and egregious acts, policies or practices that threaten U.S. intellectual property and which have the greatest adverse impact on the United States.

Under the statute, USTR generally must initiate what is known as a "Special 301" investigation within 30 days of designating a priority foreign country, which could lead to the White House imposing import duties if U.S. concerns are not satisfactorily addressed, the lawmakers said.

"We have received the letter and are reviewing it," USTR spokeswoman Carol Guthrie said.

USTR also could file a case at the World Trade Organization if it determines that the priority foreign country is violating international trade rules.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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Nations close to deal on U.N. arms trade treaty: envoys

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations members on Wednesday were close to a deal on the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, though delegates and rights groups said India, Iran or others could still block agreement.

Arms control campaigners and human rights groups say one person dies every minute worldwide as a result of armed violence and a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

United Nations member states began meeting last week in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.

The world body's 193 member states received the last revision of the draft treaty ahead of the final day of the drafting conference on Thursday. Reuters questioned delegates from over a dozen countries who said they were cautiously optimistic that the treaty would be adopted unanimously.

"India, Syria and Iran are countries that could still cause trouble," a European diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "But I'll wager the treaty will pass by consensus."

Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, diplomats say. Syria is in a two-year-old civil war and hopes Russian and Iranian arms keep flowing in, they added.

But they are under pressure to back the draft, envoys said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a U.S. official declined to say whether Washington would support the draft treaty.

"We are continuing to review the text with an eye toward ensuring that it accomplishes all of our goals, including that it protect the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade and, of course, that it not infringe upon the constitutional right of our citizens to bear arms," he said.

Several U.N. diplomats predicted Washington would vote yes.

The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group, opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification if it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobby group, has said that the treaty would not impact the right to bear arms.

'DEFICIENCIES'

Other major arms producers like Russia and China, which had initially resisted the treaty, along with Germany, France and Britain were also expected to support the draft, diplomats said.

The chief British delegate, Ambassador Joanne Adamson, said the new draft treaty has many improvements over earlier drafts.

"These (improvements) include inclusion of ammunition in the scope of the treaty, a new article on preventing diversion of arms, and strengthened section on exports which are prohibited," she said. "Human rights are at the heart of this text."

The main reason the arms trade talks are taking place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms exporter - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support an arms treaty.

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

Several human rights groups and arms control advocates, including Amnesty International, Oxfam and Control Arms, praised the new draft. They said it had shortcomings, but was a major improvement over an earlier draft that had too many loopholes.

"While there are still deficiencies in this final draft, this treaty has the potential to provide significant human rights protection and curb armed conflict and violence if all governments demonstrate the political will to implement it," Brian Wood of Amnesty International said.

But he made clear that there were problems with the text, including an overly narrow scope of types of arms covered. It covers tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers and small arms and light arms.

Predator drones and grenades are among the weapon categories that are not covered explicitly in the draft treaty.

Anna Macdonald of Oxfam said there were "some improvements" in the draft, though some problems remained that she wanted fixed in the final hours before a decision is made by U.N. member states.

"We need a treaty that will make a difference to the lives of the people living in Congo, Mali, Syria and elsewhere who suffer each day from the impacts of armed violence," she said.

Daryl Kimball, head of the Arms Control Association, predicted that "over time, the treaty will help tip the scales in favor of human rights and human security when states consider arms sales in the future."

Rights groups complained about one possible loophole in the current draft involving defense cooperation agreements. Several diplomats who also oppose this loophole said it could exempt certain weapons transfers from the treaty.

Three delegates dubbed that provision the "India clause," because it was something India pushed hard for, they said.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stacey Joyce)

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What's at stake in U.N. arms trade treaty negotiations?

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Members of the United Nations are in the final days of negotiations on what could become the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade.

The treaty drafting conference at the U.N.'s headquarters in New York City will continue through Thursday.

A new draft text was circulated to the states participating in the conference last Friday, which rights groups criticized as disappointing.

Following are questions and answers about the arms treaty conference.

WHAT IS THE ARMS TRADE TREATY?

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of any type of conventional weapon - light and heavy. It would also create binding requirements for nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure the munitions will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism, violations of humanitarian law, do not breach U.N. arms embargoes and are not illegally diverted.

It would require governments to refuse to export weapons to countries that would likely use them to violate human rights or commit war crimes. It would also require governments to regulate arms brokering.

WHAT WEAPONS WOULD BE COVERED?

The current draft treaty says that the following weapon types will be covered battle tanks; armored combat vehicles; large-caliber artillery systems; combat aircraft; attack helicopters; warships; missiles and missile launchers; small arms and light weapons, ranging from assault rifles to handguns.

A previous draft said those were the weapons covered by the treaty "at a minimum." Rights groups complained that the new draft has narrowed the scope of the treaty.

It would not cover unconventional weapons like nuclear, chemical and biological arms. Separate treaties cover those.

WHO WANTS SUCH A TREATY?

Human rights groups, arms control advocates and a majority of the U.N.'s 193 member states want a strong treaty that imposes tough new standards on the largely unregulated arms trade. Many of the treaty's most ardent supporters come from Europe, Latin America and Africa, though it has supporters from all over the world.

Nearly 120 countries, led by Mexico, issued a joint statement on Monday saying "the overwhelming majority of (U.N.) Member States agree with us on the necessity and the urgency of adopting a strong Arms Trade Treaty. Our voice must be heard."

Among that statement's supporters were major arms producers Britain and Germany. The other four top arms exporters - the United States, Russia, China and France - did not endorse it.

The five permanent Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - issued their own joint statement of support for a treaty that "sets the highest possible common standards by which states will regulate the international transfer of conventional arms."

The five also said that "an effective (treaty) should not hinder the legitimate arms trade or the legitimate right to self defense under the U.N. Charter."

The main reason the arms trade talks are taking place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms trader - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support a treaty.

Delegates have expressed concern that other major arms producers like Iran, Pakistan and others might take issue with some of the provisions in the treaty and demand the inclusion of language that weakens it and adds loopholes. Since the treaty-drafting conference works on the basis of consensus, any country can veto the outcome if it chooses to do so.

WHAT WILL AN ARMS TRADE TREATY NOT DO?

According to the U.N. Office of Disarmament, it will not do any of the following: interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in member states; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm states' legitimate right to self-defense; undermine national arms regulation standards already in place.

The National Rifle Association, the powerful U.S. gun rights lobby group, is strongly opposed to the arms trade treaty. The group has vowed to fight the convention's ratification by the U.S. Senate if Washington backs it at the United Nations.

The NRA says the treaty would undermine gun ownership rights under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobbying group, last month disputed the NRA position, saying in a paper that "ratification of the treaty would not infringe upon rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment."

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE CONFERENCE FAILS TO APPROVE A TREATY?

If the conference fails to agree to a treaty because it cannot reach the required consensus, delegates say they can put it to a vote in the U.N. General Assembly to rescue it. Either way, if a treaty is approved, national legislatures will need to ratify it.

WHAT ARE THE STICKING POINTS IN NEGOTIATIONS?

- Ammunition. Most countries and rights groups want ammunition to be covered comprehensively in the treaty. Exports of ammunition are covered in the draft treaty but not imports. The United States has said it opposes inclusion of ammunition. Rights groups say coverage of ammunition is inadequate.

- Self-defense. Some delegations are insisting that the draft include more language on the right of countries to legitimate self-defense. That is because some major arms-importing states, especially in the Middle East, have expressed concern that their ability to import weapons could suffer if the treaty comes into force.

- Risk of diversion. Some countries want the risk of diversion of weapons to unintended recipients, such as rebel groups or governments under a U.N. arms embargo, to be a criterion for refusing to grant an export license.

- "Overriding." The current draft says that arms exports should be canceled if there is an "overriding" risk that they could be used in human rights violations. Some countries have suggested that a better threshold would be if there is a "substantial" risk involved.

- Exemptions. There are a number of scenarios under which arms deals would be exempt in the current draft, such as defense cooperation agreements - something India wanted - and gifts, loans and leases of weapons. Supporters of a tough treaty call them loopholes and want them removed.

- Reporting. The current draft says countries will send reports to the U.N. on their international arms trade but does not call for them to be made public. Western nations want such reports to be made public but countries like China, Iran and others do not want that information disseminated openly.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Trade relations in focus before China's Xi gives Africa speech

By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala and George Obulutsa

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - China's trade ties with Africa will be under the spotlight on Monday when President Xi Jinping outlines his country's relationship with the continent, which Beijing is increasingly turning to for both its resources and as a market place.

Xi's tour of Africa on his first overseas trip is seen as a reflection of the strategic importance of Africa's oil and mineral resources to the world's second biggest economy.

But while seeking to build on expanding economic relations, China's new leader faces concerns in Africa that the continent is being stripped of its raw materials for export while spending heavily on finished consumer goods from the Asian economic powerhouse.

Africans generally see China as a healthy counterbalance to the West's influence but, as the relationship matures, there are growing calls from policymakers and economists for a more balanced trade deal.

One of Xi's main aims could be to ease local fears China was in Africa purely for its resources, said James Shikwati, head of the Nairobi-based Inter Regional Economic Network think tank.

Gratitude for Chinese no-strings aid to Africa is increasingly tinged with a wariness about its intentions.

"China has been giving us a lot of development support, but they obviously want something in return," said university student Lisa Mgaya in Dar es Salaam.

"We should be careful with China."

LONG HISTORY OF CONTACTS

Chinese interest in Africa goes back centuries. In 1414 admiral Zheng He sailed with a fleet down the east coast of Africa to Malindi, on a voyage to proclaim the strength of China. He famously brought home a giraffe, astonishing the Chinese court.

Six centuries later, China is focused less on African exotica and more on energy and minerals. The east African seaboard is hot property after huge gas discoveries in Tanzania and Mozambique. Oil strikes have also caught China's eye.

Xi arrived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital where he will deliver his speech, on Sunday and signed more than a dozen trade and cooperation deals with President Jakaya Kikwete's government.

The agreements included plans to co-develop a new port and industrial zone complex, a concessional loan for communications infrastructure and an interest free loan to the Tanzanian government. No details were given on the size of the loans or the monetary value of the projects.

He then travels to South Africa for a summit of leaders of the world's major emerging economies, known as the BRICS, on Tuesday and Wednesday, and could endorse plans to create a joint foreign exchange reserves pool and an infrastructure.

The proposal underscores frustrations among emerging markets at having to rely on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are seen as reflecting the interests of the United States and other industrialized nations.

Nigeria's central bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, wrote in the Financial Times this month that the trade imbalance between China and Africa was "the essence of colonialism" and cautioned the continent was vulnerable to a new form of imperialism.

China will be keen not to be perceived as an imperial master.

"The legacy of (the) West is the feeling that Africa should thank them, and that Africa should recognize that it is not as good as the West," said Zhong Jianhua, China's special envoy to Africa. "That is not acceptable."

Xi's African tour ends in the Republic of Congo, from where China imported 5.4 billion metric tons (5.9 billion tons) of oil last year, just 2 percent of its total oil imports, but potentially the source of a lot more to feed its booming, energy-hungry economy.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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China eyes faster trade talks as trans-Pacific pact advances

By Aileen Wang and Nick Edwards

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will hold three rounds of trade negotiations with Japan and South Korea this year and step up talks with other trading partners, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday, as U.S. efforts to seal a trans-Pacific free trade deal gather pace.

China said the first set of talks on a three-way free trade agreement (FTA) with its two neighbors would be staged in Seoul, the South Korean capital, from March 26-28. They will then move to China, with a third leg to be held in Japan, ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told a news conference.

The talks are seen by analysts as a two-pronged initiative by Beijing to engage with Japan after recent diplomatic tension over disputed island territory in the East China Sea, while also countering the "pivot" by the United States to reaffirm its role in Asia in the face of China's economic rise.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last week that Tokyo would seek to join the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks that currently bring together the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

Bringing the world's third-largest economy into the negotiations would set the stage for a final agreement covering nearly 40 percent of world's economic output, but could also isolate China in the process.

"We will improve communications and talks with the related parties and push forward the progress of our own free trade areas," Shen told reporters when asked to respond to Japan's plan to join TPP negotiations.

"We always think that every economy in the world has the right to participate in the process of world economic integration and we always take an open and inclusive attitude for all efforts to push for regional and world cooperation," Shen said.

"We also think that any regional or bilateral free trade agreement should be only a complement to the multi-lateral trade system, not a replacement for it," he said.

Shen gave no dates for any of the later talks he said were planned as part of the three-way China-Japan-South Korea pact.

The three nations last held ministerial-level talks on a free trade deal four months ago during the East Asia Summit held in Cambodia.

(Reporting by Nick Edwards; Editing by Paul Tait)

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Furious with Europe, British fishermen lament demise of trade

ABOARD THE WHITBY ROSE, North Sea (Reuters) - His eyes fixed on the North Sea horizon, British skipper Howard Locker steers his boat far out to sea where he hopes to stumble on enough fish to save the day.

But things are not looking good for Locker - one of the last remaining trawler men in the north-eastern town of Whitby where fishing quotas, climate change and decades of overfishing have crushed the local fishing industry.

"The market has collapsed," said Locker, who has been fishing out of the harbour for more than 40 years. "When I was 16, I couldn't believe I'd be scraping a living like this."

"We are the last of the great hunters. A lifetime at sea. For what?" Locker added, as gusts of icy wind lashed his face.

Like Locker, most residents of this traditional fishing town are angry. And the focus of that anger is the European Union.

Negotiating fishing quotas with Brussels has long been a source of friction for Britain. The European Union sets limits on how much fish EU member states can catch every year, saying it helps conserve stocks and protect the health of the seas.

But in places like Whitby, home of centuries of seafaring, people blame the EU for destroying their livelihoods.

In the debate on whether Britain should leave the club altogether in a possible referendum by 2017, for many living off the sea, the answer is clear.

"Out. Definitely. I would want to be out of the EU," said Malcolm Ward, 56, a fisherman from the nearby fishing port of Scarborough, as he gulped down beer in a pub called The Newcastle Packet where fishermen have drank for generations.

"I don't know anyone who would vote to be in it," he added, as other fishermen, their arms adorned with faded tattoos of fish and anchors, nodded and repeated: "Out, out".

In this windswept part of Britain, where people have lived off fishing at least since Roman times, the shoreline is dotted with centuries-old fishing villages and towns.

The trade has gone though much turmoil over the centuries, including an 80-year-long obsession with whaling which dominated local fisheries in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The British fishing fleet is now one of Europe's biggest, employing more than 10,000 people - which makes the country one of the EU's top three producers along with Denmark and Spain.

But the future looks bleak, and the mood is dark.

Fish stocks are being depleted rapidly all over the planet and maritime economies are suffering across the globe because of over-fishing and climate change - unpredictable factors which, unlike EU quotas, cannot be resolved through negotiations.

"The change has been very dramatic. It's quotas and conditions that aren't making it worthwhile to do fishing here anymore," said Richard Lawton, Whitby assistant harbourmaster.

"Whitby fishermen might be the one group of people who would vote to come out of the EU," he added, speaking in his office cluttered with nautical almanacs and maps of the harbour.

Locals agree. "Years ago, that quayside was full of boats. It's a miserable fishing atmosphere now," said Steve Boocock, 32, a fish retailer. "People will vote to come out (of the EU)."

DECLINE

Once a bustling port, Whitby is now a shadow of its former self in terms of fishing. The harbour is empty and quiet. Flocks of seagulls swoop over a small fleet of rusty fishing boats. Only 200 people are left employed in fishing.

Landings of valuable white fish such as cod are down to about 10 percent of the total, as local fishermen try to diversify into prawn and crab fishing to make ends meet.

Ian Havelock, chair of the local town council's harbour committee, estimated the industry has shrunk by 85-90 percent from its heyday in the 1980s - which is when the EU started to impose quotas to help replenish North Sea stocks.

"I was brought up in the heart of the fishing area. It was so very, very different," said Havelock. "There were fishing families in just about every house. It was prosperous."

The town's survival now largely depends on crowds of tourists coming down to see the ruin of an imposing Gothic abbey perched on a steep cliff top - a moody place said to have inspired Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel, Dracula.

The fishermen say climate change has also been a big factor. Global warming has expanded fish habitat northwards, with stocks sometimes disappearing from the waters off the Yorkshire coast for weeks on end. Boats return at dawn with largely empty nets.

Often schools of fish reappear unpredictably, resulting in bumper catches and much jubilation - but then EU quotas kick in, forcing skippers to dump the excess catch in the sea to avoid hefty EU fines.

Unable to make money from fishing, many fishermen rely on jobs guarding offshore oil and gas pipelines. Ironically for a town which blames the EU for everything, this has attracted intrepid job seekers from the EU itself.

"Oil is better money than fish," said Sergei Bartulans, 33, a captain from Latvia who operates a former fishing trawler called the Maggie M to assist North Sea oil drilling research.

"Before, they used to go out on ships like this to fish. But now people like me are taking over. The industry here is dying."

The EU may be an easy scapegoat, but some fishermen do concede it is probably decades of unrestrained over-fishing, climate change and other factors that are to blame.

"Five or seven years ago we had about 28 trawlers around here. There is about two now," said Joe Storr, 58, whose family has been in fishing for generations. He recently gave up white fishing, making ends meet by catching lobsters off the coast.

"At the end of the day, a lot of it is self-harmed. I think they've slaughtered it really. ... The fish isn't there now."

EU WATCHING

Back onshore in Whitby harbour, an old metal box with the gold stars of the EU flag greets fishermen coming back from sea - this is where log notes detailing their daily catch levels are collected by maritime authorities enforcing EU rules.

Many scoff at the sight. "I am not European. I am British," said Locker the skipper as he steered his boat into the harbour.

He showed a crumpled piece of paper where he had scrawled his monthly quotas: 400 kg of monkfish, 1.25 tonnes of cod, two tonnes of haddock. As he spoke, a lone seal played in the wake of his boat, hoping for a share of Locker's catch.

The EC says it is aware of the plight of local communities.

It has proposed to reform its quota system to introduce a new concept known as "maximum sustainable yield" which replaces annual quotas with multi-year plans that would help conserve stocks while giving fishermen more opportunity to make money.

"By bringing fish stocks back to sustainable levels, the reformed policy will bring new prosperity to the fishing sector and end its dependence on subsidies," said a spokesman for EU fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki.

Officials say decades of overfishing have cut the profitability of up to 40 percent of EU fleets, and a lull in fishing for a few years would allow stocks to recover.

The EU also says if stocks were exploited sustainably according to long-term advice, sizes would increase by about 70 percent. Catches would increase by around 17 percent and incomes could increase by 24 percent for fishermen - or by the equivalent of about 1.8 billion euros (1.6 billion pounds) - per year.

But for men like Locker, business is barely profitable. "It's just not viable. For the last 20 years all the government and the EU have done was, cut, cut, cut, cut quotas," he said.

For now, he is worried about his son who wants to make a career out of fishing. There is no future in it, Locker said.

"He said he wanted to go fishing. I could've killed him. Honestly. And he loves it," Locker said with joking frustration as he looked at his son from the window of the skipper's cabin.

"I have a little grandson, two-year-old. If he ever thinks of buying a (fishing) rod, I am going to hit him with it. I am."

(Additional reporting by Charlie Dunmore in Brussels, Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

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France's Hollande juggles trade, human rights in Moscow

PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande wants to boost trade ties with Moscow and will have to balance that with French concerns over Russia's human rights record during a debut Moscow visit on Thursday that could prove a diplomatic obstacle course.

An encounter in Paris last June between the newly elected Socialist Hollande and Russia's Vladimir Putin bristled with tension, unlike the cosy meetings between Putin and Hollande's conservative predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.

Aides on both sides want to avoid the full-frontal clash on rights that marked German Chancellor Angela Merkel's trip to Moscow last year, when she accused Moscow of stifling dissent.

Moreover, with the French economy edging closer to recession and domestic demand moribund, Hollande needs all the outside help he can get to kick-start growth, and will be pushing for Russian business to step up investment in France.

Yet everything from Moscow's support of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, in defiance of the West, to Putin's very public relish at French actor Gerard Depardieu's decision to take Russian nationality for tax reasons means the scope for misunderstandings is great.

"You can get on with someone without loving them," veteran Russia specialist Helene Carrere d'Encausse said of the strained pragmatism she saw defining the visit, whose high point is an 06.00 a.m. EST joint news conference with Hollande and Putin.

Hollande aides insist that, aside from Syria, the positions of Paris and Moscow converge in several areas - notably on Mali, where Russia has backed a U.N. resolution which is a key part of French efforts to extricate its soldiers and put African troops in the front line against al Qaeda allies.

RIGHTS RECORD

Russia sees Tuesday's move by major powers to offer Iran some sanctions relief in return for a halt of some atomic work as a sign that France and other Western states are moving closer to its thinking on an issue that has divided the U.N. Security Council for years.

"In bilateral ties I see no major problems," said Alexei Pushkov, head of foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament's lower chamber.

"From my contacts with the French lawmakers I get the impression they have a calm attitude towards Russia. Of course there is come criticism, but not to the extent that can be heard in the U.S. Congress or the German Bundestag," he added.

French officials insist Putin's embrace of Depardieu after his decision to seek exile from French taxes on the rich will not jar relations - even with the actor's outing this weekend to the Chechnya region where rights groups accuse security services of extrajudicial killings and other abuses.

But Hollande is under pressure at home to raise human rights concerns including the fate of Putin critics such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 49, once Russia's richest man and now serving 13 years jail on fraud and tax evasion charges.

"The last year has been the worst for human rights in Russia in recent memory, and Hollande should not miss this chance to persuade Putin to turn things around," said Rachel Denber of New York-based Human Rights Watch, pointing to new laws which she said restricted public assembly and Internet content in Russia.

The two leaders may broach delicate energy issues, with the European Union seeking to wind down its gas reliance on Russia and Moscow angry over EU efforts to force dominant suppliers such as Russia's Gazprom to sell off infrastructure.

But Paris is keener to focus on raising Russian investment in France, which at around one billion euros only accounts for a 12th of the value of French investment in Russia.

While no major deal is due to be announced, small economic cooperation pacts, plans to facilitate visas and student exchanges are likely to be announced.

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Mark John; Editing by Jon Boyle and Michael Roddy)

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