Exports to the US of the Jewish

military-style assault weapons.

WASHINGTON, Sept 16. 1997 (Reuter) - California Sen. Dianne Feinstein

said on Tuesday she has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to block

exports to the United States of military-style assault weapons.

Feinstein, a Democrat, said the Uzi and Galil versions of the

semi-automatic weapons slated for sale in the United States are basically

the same type of weapon banned in a 1994 law she authored.

``These are exactly the kind of weapons many Americans are trying to keep

off our streets and out of the hands of criminals,'' she wrote in a letter

to Netanyahu. She said that although the weapons met the technicalities of

U.S. law, they could be altered to become fully automatic, to hold up to

100 bullets and can be fired from the hip.

``They are capable of firing bullets as fast as the operator can pull the

trigger,'' she said.

Feinstein was responding to a report that Israel Military Industries Ltd.,

owned by the government of Israel, hoped to sell about 10,000 or more in

the U.S. market.

The company said the weapons will be in the United States late this year

or early next spring. Imports of Uzis had been banned since 1986, but the

guns have been changed to comport with the 1994 law and would hold no more

than 10 rounds, the company said.