New York - A UN General Assembly committee on Friday voted by a large majority to push for an arms trade treaty to control the sale of weapons around the world worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

The political committee, known as the First Committee, voted 145-2 to set up a working group that will push for an arms trade treaty that would establish common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms.

The United States and Zimbabwe were the only countries that voted against the decision to move on to a global treaty.

New York - A UN General Assembly committee adopted Friday a draft arms trade treaty, the first step in efforts to control the sale of weapons around the world worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, a British diplomat said.

The assembly's political committee, known as the First Committee, adopted 145-2 the draft treaty, which would go through more rounds of talks before a final vote by the 
192-nation assembly that would make it a binding treaty. The draft had been under negotiations for three years.

Nairobi/Goma - Desperate civilians who fled a relentless rebel offensive in east Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this week were beginning to return home Friday as a fragile ceasefire continued to hold, an aid agency said.

Rebel Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda on Wednesday evening called a ceasefire as his troops were on the verge of taking the major city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them from the town of Kibumba, north of Goma, fled the advance as the Congolese army went into full retreat.

Kathmandu - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sought a continued UN role in Nepal's peace process, at a meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Friday, officials said.

Nepalese officials said the talks centred on the integration of former rebel combatants into the national army and a possible extension of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN).

New Delhi, Oct 31: U. N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged rich countries not to lose sight of the developing world while tackling the worst global financial crisis in decades.

New York - The UN Security Council condemned "in the strongest terms" on Thursday the wave of bomb attacks in Somalia that killed at least 26 people, including two staff members of the UN Development Programme.

The two staff members were Somalis who worked for the UN for years. The attacks took place Wednesday in the breakaway Somaliland and Puntland regions.