Blair said road crashes were the second-biggest cause of death for young men following HIV/Aids, while seven-time world Formula One champion Schumacher said the international community needed to wake up to the "horrific waste of life."

 In 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, 1.2 million people of all ages died on the road -- including 1,000 young people per day -- and between 20 and 50 million were injured, according to the UN.

 To mark the start of the UN's Global Road Safety Week, Schumacher was in London to join British road safety organisations in launching a global petition calling for a UN conference, while Blair's comments came in a video statement.

 "Every minute of every day a child is killed or seriously injured on the world's roads," said the prime minister.

 "Road crashes are the second leading cause of death for young men after HIV/Aids, and in some African countries more than 70 per cent of those killed on the roads are young breadwinners.

 "It is becoming clear that road injury has a serious impact on the wider development goals we are all trying to achieve. So I commend the proposal that the UN should organise a global ministerial meeting on road safety."

 Schumacher said: "A thousand young people under the age of 25 die every day on the roads.

 "Road crashes kill on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis, yet the international community has not woken up to this horrific waste of life."

 He said he strongly supported the UN conference proposal "to tackle this preventable loss of life."

 The global cost of road accidents, among people of all ages, is put at 518 billion dollars a year, according to 2002 UN figures.

 Low- and middle-income countries accounted for 65-100 billion dollars of this, which is more than they received in annual development aid and equivalent.

Road accidents kill 1.2 million a year: WHO

Agence France Presse