Global military spending, mainly driven by the US and its “war on terrorism”, rose to a new high in 2006, with India the main military spender in South Asia, a peace institute said on Monday.
India remained the main military spender in South Asia  along with China accounting for 40 per cent of the region’s spending said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
It said India and China were also the world’s largest importers of weapons. Other large importers were Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
China surpassed Japan as the biggest military spender in Asia, and became the world’s fourth largest military spender in 2006.
Combined arms sales from the world’s top 100 companies, not including China, totalled $290 billion for 2005, the latest year covered by SIPRI.
Of the 100 companies, 40 were US-based and accounted for 63 per cent of arms sales. The 32 European companies had a 29 per cent share. Nine companies in Russia accounted for 2 percent of sales.
The US accounted for some 62 per cent or $26 billion of the total $39 billion increase in world military expenditure in 2006.
The US tops the world’s weapon spenders list with its 46 pc share of world military spending. The other top four military spenders — Britain, France, China and Japan — each accounted for 4 to 5 pc. In its overview, SIPRI said that Western Europe and Central America were the only regions with a decrease in military expenditure in 2006.
Russia’s military expenditure rose by almost 12 pc in real terms last year, a trend that started in 1998.
In the Middle East, accurate figures for spending were hard to come by but Saudi Arabia remained the largest regional spender, followed by Israel and Iran, SIPRI said.
In Africa, Algeria remained a leading military spender that in 2006 signed arms deals with Russia worth $10.5 billion.
The US and Russia were the world’s largest arms exporters 2002-06, accounting for some 30 per cent each.
Asia: Most armed conflict region
In its annual outlook, the institute said Asia was the region with the most armed conflicts. There were 17 major armed conflicts (defined as at least with 1,000 killed in battle) in 2006.