EU asks Italy to lead push for death penalty ban

BRUSSELS, May 14 (Reuters) The European Union has mandated Italy to lead a push for a UN moratorium on the death penalty across the world, the 27-member bloc said today.

Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said Rome had been asked to draft a text calling for the suspension of the penalty at the next meeting of the United Nations General Assembly later this year.

''We have been lobbying hard in the past year for the suspension of the death penalty and we believe the time is right now to have another stab,'' German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier told reporters after a meeting in Brussels.

Data collected by rights group Amnesty showed a fall in worldwide executions to 1,591 in 2006 from 2,148 in 2005, and a fall in the number of countries imposing the death penalty.

Some 99 countries ban capital punishment while 69 still use it. Six countries -- China, Iran, Iraq, the United States, Pakistan and Sudan -- account for about 90 per cent of the total, and China the bulk of these.

Reuters HK VP0037