AK-47 to remain world's favorite killing machine for next 20 yrs

Up to 70 million AK-47s and variations of its design are in circulation around the world, including in the state arsenal of at least 82 countries, according to the report by the Control Arms Campaign, which lobbies for small arms controls.

Ak-47s are used to "massacre, maim, rape and abuse, torture, and fuel violent crime in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Britain, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Mexico, Sierra Leone, the US, Venezuela and Yemen," the report added.

It noted that "the large number of production facilities, the widespread availability of surplus Kalashnikovs, and the absence of global standards and laws to regulate their transfer make it easy for the weapons to fall into the hands of unscrupulous arms brokers, armed militia and criminals."

Produced in at least 14 countries across four continents, the AK-47, which can be fired at a rate of 600 bullets per minute, can be bought for as little as 30 dollars in parts of Africa.

The report was released just as a two-week UN conference got under way here Monday to review efforts to stem the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons.

It quoted the AK-47's inventor, Lieutenant-General Mikhail Kalashnikov, as pleading for strict international regulation of the small arms trade.

"Because of the lack of international control over arms sales, small arms easily find their way to anywhere in the world to be used not only for national defense but by aggressors, terrorists and all kinds of criminals," the Russian inventor said.

"People often ask me whether I feel guilty about human suffering that is caused by the attacks with AK-47," he added. "But it is not the designers who must ultimately take responsibility for where guns end up. It is governments who must control their production and export."