The UN Security Council voted unanimously to protect humanitarian aid workers in war zones, despite some US misgivings over the wording of the resolution.
Mexico's draft version had referred to the International Criminal Court, before the US demanded that the phrase be dropped.
The resolution was passed on Tuesday, a week after a bomb attack on the UN offices in Baghdad killed 23, including the UN envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan underlined the importance of a unanimous decision, in brief remarks ahead of the vote.
"Emphasizing that there are existing prohibitions under international law against attacks knowingly and intentionally directed against personnel involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission undertaken in accordance with the Charter of the UN which, in situations of armed conflicts, constitute war crimes and recalling the need for states to end impunity for such criminal acts," the resolution said.
The US objected to the original language that would have made any attack on humanitarian personnel a war crime, including acts committed in what it called the "fog of war."
US ambassador to the UN John Negroponte said: "This resolution creates no new international legal obligation but rather reaffirms existing regulation."
The US ambassador also recalled that other international conventions allow the occupying powers to restrict freedom of movement of aid workers in areas they control.
Annan emphasized that the resolution "strengthens the obligation to take every step to protect those working `blue flag' and to bring to justice those who hurt them."
"It allows the governments to take action against the perpetrators and to work with us to be sure our personnel are not in harm's way."
He said that the removal of the mention of the ICC changed nothing.
"It was a compromise that was necessary to get the resolution passed," he said.
Non-governmental organizations and human groups lobbied for Mexico's draft resolution.
Richard Dicker, head of the Justice International Program of Human Rights Watch said: "I am not thrilled but it is certainly an instrument which can be used to prosecute those accused of these crimes."
Late on Tuesday, the Mexican government expressed satisfaction its draft resolution had been passed.
The government of Mexican President Vicente Fox is pleased "because the main objective of this resolution was for us to obtain a document with sufficient strength to give humanitarian workers in conflict zones the protection they need," said Mexican Foreign Ministry spokesman Allan Nahum.
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