Cluster bombs ban clinched in historic Dublin-led treaty

Diplomats and officials from 109 countries who gathered at a conference at Croke Park agreed a treaty which bans the use of cluster bombs. It is due to be adopted tomorrow.

The deal is massive coup for Irish diplomacy and particularly for former Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern, who backed the Dublin event.

The 10-day talks received a critical boost when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown unexpectedly threw his weight behind an international treaty yesterday.

Britain had not been expected to give up the weapon which drops tiny clusters of bomblets from a single carrier. But Mr Brown over-ruled objections from his own military advisers to press ahead with a ban on the two cluster munitions in the UK armoury -- called the M85 and the M73.

His statement that the deal would "make the world a safer place" appeared to have confounded critics who said no deal would be possible.

Delighted

Last year Mr Ahern, now Justice Minister, saw at first hand the human misery inflicted by cluster bombs when he visited UN troops in southern Lebanon last year.

He gave full ministerial backing to the event and told the Irish Independent last night he was "personally delighted" a deal was done.

He paid tribute to those involved including his successor Micheal Martin. He added: "This deal will give my colleagues in Government a great sense of fulfillment."

Writing in today's Irish Independent, Mr Martin said: "Survivors . . . have come to Dublin to bear witness to the effect of cluster munitions on them and their families. We owed it to them to adopt this treaty."

And Amnesty International, warmly praised the Government's efforts as "amazing".

Earlier yesterday the British Prime Minister said: "In order to secure as strong a convention as possible in the last hours of negotiation we have issued instructions that we should support a ban on all cluster bombs, including those currently in service by the UK."

He said the bombs caused "unacceptable harm to civilians" and added he would now work "to encourage the widest possible international support" for the ban, a sign he will now lobby the US.

The world's main producers, users and stockpilers of the weapons -- including the United States, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, India and China -- oppose the move.

Treaty

Delegates had last night yet to agree on how to deal with a situation where troops from a country that has signed the treaty are involved in operations with forces from a country that has not -- like the US.

A final draft of the new convention went before delegates representing NGOs and the Cluster Munition Coalition last night. The treaty is expected to be signed in Oslo in December, with the ban in complete force within eight years and all stockpiles destroyed.

Cluster bombs have been used in many countries including Cambodia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

They are made up of a big container which opens in mid-air, dropping hundreds of smaller individual bombs, or sub-munitions, across a wide area.