U.N. council warns of firmer action on child soldiers

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council threatened on Tuesday to step up measures against armies and groups using child soldiers but made no firm pledge to impose sanctions requested by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In a report last month, Ban listed 58 parties to armed conflict in 13 countries -- mainly in Africa and Asia -- that sent children into battle. They included government armies in Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Sudan as well as rebel factions.

The Security Council should consider penalizing those responsible by banning arms and military aid and slapping travel and financial restrictions on them, Ban said.

In a statement adopted after a debate on Tuesday, the council expressed "readiness to review the relevant provisions of its resolutions on children and armed conflict ... with a view to further increasing the efficiency of its actions."

But the statement, read out by current council president Ricardo Alberto Arias of Panama, went no further and asked Ban to submit another report by May 2009.

The U.N. children's fund UNICEF estimated last year there were some 250,000 child soldiers worldwide. Other experts say the true numbers are impossible to determine.

The council had already said in resolutions in 2004 and 2005 it would consider targeted measures against violators, but so far it has punished only one person. In 2006 a sanctions committee imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on a former rebel commander from Ivory Coast, Martin Fofie.

The latest resolution in 2005 set up a monitoring and reporting mechanism that allows Ban to identify violators in his reports.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict, told Tuesday's debate it was "most important that the council make good on its promise" to adopt concrete measures.

Several Western countries said they supported Ban's position. Speaking for France, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the council's credibility was at stake. "There is no credible deterrence without real sanctions," he said.

But Chinese envoy Liu Zhenmin said the council should work through governments and Beijing had "always opposed the willful use of sanctions or the threat of sanctions." He added that "caution is called for" on the issue of child soldiers.

U.S. envoy Alejandro Wolff said while Washington backed Ban's efforts to end the use of child soldiers, it opposed his recommendation to refer violators to the International Criminal Court, to which the United States does not belong.

Despite the lack of firm commitments by the council, Coomaraswamy told reporters the statement "keeps the momentum, moving us forward."

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)