DUBLIN, Ireland, May 30 (UPI) -- Representatives of 110 nations meeting in Dublin Friday signed a treaty that would ban the use of cluster-bomb munitions.
The United States, China and Russia opposed the ban, which is known as the Cluster Munitions Convention and requires all stockpiles of cluster bombs to be destroyed within eight years.
CNN said Washington opposed a ban due to military strategy concerns, and has been working on a different agreement through the Swiss-based Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which includes major military powers.
Cluster bombs are air-dropped weapons that scatter scores of small "bomblets" across wide areas. Critics say that a percentage of the bomblets fail to explode on impact, leaving them to be picked up by civilians who can be maimed or killed when they go off.
The Arms Control Association (ACA) issued a statement in Washington describing cluster bombs as "an indiscriminant weapon that has maimed and killed tens of thousands of noncombatants worldwide."
"The Cluster Munitions Convention will save lives and prevent disabling injuries worldwide by prohibiting weapons that are not essential for the world's military forces and that wreak a terrible human toll," said ACA Executive Director Daryl Kimball.
