The Assembly,

 RECALLING Article 15(i) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Assembly in relation to regulations and guidelines concerning maritime safety,

 BEARING IN MIND that regulation II-2/15.2.4 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, as amended, requires that fire control plans be permanently exhibited for the guidance of the ship's officers and that a duplicate set of fire control plans or a booklet containing such plans be permanently stored in a prominently marked weathertight enclosure outside the deckhouse for the assistance of shore-side fire-fighting personnel,

 RECOGNIZING that the use of international symbols for shipboard fire control plans would greatly increase their usefulness, both for the crew of the ship and for shore-based fire brigades,

 RECALLING ALSO resolution A.654(16) on Graphical symbols for fire control plans.

 NOTING that ISO had, in close co-operation with IMO, developed standard ISO 17631:2002 - Ships and marine technology - Shipboard plans for fire protection, life-saving appliances and means of escape, providing fire protection symbols which generally conform to the corresponding symbols set out in resolution A.654(16),

 NOTING IN PARTICULAR that, through MSC/Circ.1050, Member Governments had been invited to bring standard ISO 17631:2002 to the attention of shipbuilders, shipowners, shipoperators, shipmasters, shore-based fire-fighting personnel and other parties concerned with the preparation or use of shipboard fire control plans, so that they might use it, on a voluntary basis, for the preparation or use of the shipboard fire control plans required by SOLAS regulation II-2/15.2.4, pending the outcome of the work related to the revision of resolution A.654(16),

 HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Maritime Safety Committee at its seventy-seventh session,

  1. ADOPTS the Graphical symbols for shipboard fire control plans, set out in the Annex to the present resolution;

  2. URGES Governments to bring the aforementioned graphical symbols to the attention of shipbuilders, shipowners, shipoperators, shipmasters, shore-based fire-fighting personnel and other parties concerned with the preparation or use of shipboard fire control plans with a view to encouraging their use for the preparation of the shipboard fire control plans required by SOLAS regulation II-2/15.2.4, for ships constructed on or after 1 January 2004;

  3. INVITES Governments to bring standard ISO 17631:2002 to the attention of shipbuilders, shipowners, shipoperators and shipmasters so that they may use the additional guidance contained therein for the preparation of shipboard fire control plans;

  4. AGREES that ships constructed before 1 January 2004 may continue to carry fire control plans that use the graphical symbols contained in resolution A.654(16);

  5. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee to keep this resolution under review and to amend it as necessary.