UNITED NATIONS. July 6 The UN Security Council Imposed an embargo Wednesday on trade in diamonds mined from rebel-held areas of Sierra Leone. In a bld to cut olf the rebels' main source of revenue, reports AFP.

Resolution 1306. passed with 14 votes and one abstention by Mall, places an 18-month ban on trade* In diamonds from regions controlled by the Revolutionary United Front of Fodav Sankoh.

But many diplomats here doubted whether the United Nations could effectively ban the diamond trade that has fu -elled Sierra Leone's bloody civil war since 1991.

The 15 council members also called on Liberia, a transit point for many of the RUF diamonds. and the diamond Indus • try to comply with the resolution.

The resolution, proposed by Britain, said the council de -clilrd that all states should take the necessary measures to prohibit the direct or indirect

import of all rough diamonds from Sierra Leone to lheir territory."

Exempted from the ban are diamonds mined from government-controlled areas of Sierra Leone, but only alter Freetown develops a system to provide certificates of origin for the diamonds.

An amendment added at France's request puts an 18-month limit on the ban. but allows for its renewal at the end of that period

Sierra Leone's main diamond-producing areas are In regions under the control of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), along the border with Liberia.

The embargo passed with 14 votes and abstention from Mali, which objected to language referring to Liberia as a transit point for diamonds mined by Sierra Leonean rebels.

The RUF has gained worldwide notoriety during the course of Sierra Leone's eight -

year civil war for the murder, rape and mutilation ol civil -Ians, including children.

I his is a robust and imaginative response by the Security Council to that tragedy.' said British Ambassador to the United Nations. Jeremy Green stock.

"It will immediately make it more expensive and more difficult for the traders to deal conflict diamonds, some call (hem 'blood diamonds,' from Sierra Leone." he said.

Mall, one of the three Africa countries currently on the Security Council, opposed the mention of Liberia in the resolution. Liberian President Charles Taylor, once a rebel leader himself. Is believed to have supported the RUF.

But Greenstock said 'It's well known that diamonds, by one means or another, are leaving Sierra Leone through Guinea, through Liberia, and the export of diamonds by Liberia by far exceeds the pro -duction of Liberia."