The United States continued to dominate the global arms market last year, signing deals worth more than 14.5 billion US dollars, or 56.7 percent of all global arms sales deals, according to a US Congressional study released on Monday.

Russia ranked second, signing deals worth 4.3 billion dollars, or 16.8 percent of all global arms agreements, the study showed. Germany was the third largest arms supplier in 2003, signing deals worth 1.4 billion dollars.

The report, "Conventional arms Transfers to Developing Nations," which is published each year by the Congressional Research Service, also showed that global arms sales fell for a third consecutive year in 2003, dropping to 25.6 billion dollars, from 41 billion dollars in 2000.

Developing countries continued to be the primary focus of foreign arms sales activity by conventional weapons suppliers, the introduction of the report said. In 2003, arms transfer agreements to developing countries reached 13.7 billion dollars, or 53.6 percent of arms sales deals worldwide.

Asia became the largest arms market in the developing world in the period from 2000 to 2003, signing deals worth 33.8 billion dollars, or 50.8 percent of all arms deals, the report said.