CNNMoney.com, 15 February 2008

NEW YORK (AP) - The Global Alcohol Producers Group paid Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld $240,000 in 2007 to lobby on alcohol-related issues at the World Health Organization.

The group spent $120,00 in the second half of 2007 to lobby the Washington-based WHO, according to a disclosure form posted online Tuesday by the Senate's public records office.

Global Alcohol Producers also paid Akin Gump $120,000 during the first six months of 2007 to lobby on the same issue.

Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE:TAP) (TSX:TAP'B) (TSX:TAP'A) , Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE:STZ) , Great Britain's SABMiller PLC, Japan's Asahi Breweries Ltd. and 12 other spirits companies are members of Global Alcohol Producers Group.

The trade group was formed to lobby the WHO as it prepared a report on ways to reduce alcohol-related injuries and deaths for the 2007 World Health Assembly.

Global Alcohol Producers Group also lobbied Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Lobbyist Daniel Spiegel, the former U.S. envoy to the World Health Organization, is among those registered to lobby on behalf of Global Alcohol Producers.

Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.