By Greg Barrow BBC United Nations correspondent

Supporters of the International Criminal Court will see an important milestone passed this week with the election at UN headquarters in New York of 18 judges to the bench of the new court.

Representatives of the 85 nations that have signed and ratified the Rome treaty establishing the International Criminal Court are gathering on Monday.

They will vote in a carefully crafted election process designed to ensure that the new court has a good geographical and gender mix of judges.

The US has refused to submit its troops to the jurisdiction of the ICC

The election of the first judges for the International Criminal Court moves human rights campaigners across the world a step closer to the realisation of a long-held dream.

For years they have lobbied for a global court that would try special cases of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

Now that goal is in striking distance.

In a complex election process that begins on Tuesday, delegates representing all the nations that have signed and ratified the treaty setting up the new court will vote for candidates from 43 separate countries.

It could take until the end of the week before all 18 new judges are elected.

America out

The international lobby group, Human Rights Watch, has called on those participating in the election to set aside the practice of vote trading, in which regional groups agree to support each other's candidates with little regard to the individual's qualifications.

One nation that will not be represented at the proceedings is the United States.

The Bush administration has actively campaigned against the court, viewing it as a body that could potentially infringe upon national judicial sovereignty.

Human rights groups say the upcoming election is evidence that US efforts to undermine the court have so far failed.