U.S. House of Representatives passes Clean Diamond Act. (Facets).

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved in December the Clean Diamonds Act, which aim to eradicate the sale of "conflict diamonds," which are used to fund civil wars in Africa.

Members of the U.S. Congress' lower house voted 408-6 for the bill, numbered HR 2722. The version that was passed was a compromise agreed to earlier by House lawmakers and the Bush administration.

The compromise bill permits the U.S. president authority to impose sanctions against a country that does not have a system of controls on rough diamonds, if he judges it to