In an effort to halt the use of child soldiers, the UN General Assembly yesterday approved the amendment calling for governments to take all feasible measures to prevent troops under the age of eighteen from taking part in combat. The new language in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child would bar all forced recruitment of minors, whether by regular armies or by rebel forces, and calls on governments to raise the minimum age for voluntary recruitment. UN agencies and rights campaigners have been trying for years to raise the age limit on military recruits from fifteen to eighteen. The United States, which allows voluntary enlistment at seventeen, has been opposed to that limit. Only the United States and Somalia have yet to ratify the Child Rights Convention.