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Cluster-bomb ban goes through without US and other producers

Dublin_(dpa) _ More than 100 governments Wednesday agreed on a draft convention to ban the use of cluster bombs but also provided a major loophole for resistant countries like the US.

The agreement, which entails a commitment to remove the weapons from national arsenals within eight years, ended nearly two weeks of diplomatic wrangling in the Irish capital of Dublin.

Under pressure from NATO countries, the text of the anti-cluster-bomb convention contains a concession to the US and other countries which want to continue to use and produce such munitions, by allowing military cooperation between signatories and non-signatories.

The agreement is to be signed in December in Oslo.

The main producers of the weapons - the United States, Israel, China, Russia, India and Pakistan - stayed away from the conference and said they would not support the convention.

The most recent reported use of cluster bombs was during the July-August 2006 Israeli incursion into Lebanon. Israel was heavily criticized for dropping such munitions in civilian areas.

In the agreement, signatories will pledge to not only stop using cluster bombs but also to stop selling, storing or producing them.

Cluster bombs drop hundreds of tennis-ball-sized smaller explosives known as 'bomblets,' which then scatter and detonate across the battlefield.

Many bomblets fail to explode for years after a conflict, posing a threat to civilians, especially children who often mistake the munitions for toys.

The death toll ranges into the tens of thousands of civilians killed, often blinded or maimed by the weapons. According to UN estimates, they continue to present a lethal threat in more than 30 countries.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown greeted the agreement in Dublin and spoke of a 'huge stride forward' in making the world safer.

Britain helped move the agreement forward with London's pledge to demobilize cluster bombs against the will of its military leadership.

The convention text now needs individual approval from the signature governments. But, given the absence of key producers and users, its effect was uncertain.

The breakthrough was finally possible, diplomats said, after participants agreed to accept one of the main demands of the United States, pushed through with backing from NATO countries including Germany.

The special rule will allow nations which sign the anti-cluster-bomb convention to participate in common military missions with the US and other countries which continue to use the bombs.

Despite the compromise, the draft convention was greeted by the Cluster Munition Coalition as a very strong step. CMC includes 200 civil society and professional organizations working for the cluster bomb ban.

Human Rights Watch, quoting expert analysts, said the treaty would require the US to remove its stockpiles of cluster bombs at several military bases around the world.

The United States last week defended further use of cluster bombs, saying they remained tactically useful for fending off advancing armies and were being redesigned with electronic timers to ensure the bomblets either explode as intended or self destruct.

'We think this kind of blanket ban is a mistake,' said Stephen Mull, the US State Department's top official for political and military affairs.

The United States last used the weapons during the 2003 invasion of Iraq but not since, Mull said, because cluster bombs have few applications against insurgencies. Cluster bombs can be militarily effective against massed troop formations.

The conference in Dublin is to end on Friday. dpa tb pr

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