October 17, 2003	Friday	Sha'aban 20, 1424

WASHINGTON, Oct 16: India is the second largest buyer of arms in the world, spending 900 million dollars on weapons last year, the International Institute of Strategic Studies said in a report on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia, which spent an estimated 5.2 billion dollars on arms purchase last year, leads the pack of buyers, followed by India and the United Arab Emirates, who spent 900 million each.

The United States continues to be the largest seller, with a 40.3 per cent share of the global market, said the report, the Military Balance.

Last year, the United States earned 10.241 billion dollars from selling weapons, mainly to developing nations.

Another report, presented recently to the US Congress, rates India third among nations that signed arms transfer agreements during 1999-2002.

Britain, the world’s second-largest arms seller, sold arms worth 4.7 billion dollars and has an 18.5 per cent market share. It is followed by Russia _ with a share of 12.2 per cent that brought in 3.1 billion dollars.

France shared 7.1 per cent of the arms market and earned 1.8 billion dollars.

China comes fifth down the list, selling 800 million dollars worth of arms and sharing 3.1 per cent of the total sales.

The former Soviet republic of Ukraine earned 600 million dollars from weapons sales, followed by Germany, which had a two per cent share of the world market and earned 500 million dollars.

Italy, with a 1.6 per cent share, earned 400 million dollars.

Israel, the world’s ninth largest arms seller, earned in 300 million dollars from sales last year, followed by Brazil at 200 million dollars.

Saudi Arabia remains the world’s largest arms buyer despite a reduction in its purchases from the peak of 1995-1998, the report said.

A separate report presented to the US Congress says that developing nations continued to be the focus of foreign arms sales during 1999-2002.

China was the top arms procurer among developing nations with 11.3 billion dollars in arms transfer agreements in the last four years, with the United Arab Emirates coming second at nine billion dollars. India came third with purchases valued at eight billion dollars.

In 2002, it was China again at the top spot with purchase agreements totalling 3.6 billion dollars, with South Korea second at 1.9 billion dollars and India a close third at 1.4 billion dollars.