CANBERRA, Australia, May 2 (UPI) -- U.S. diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks say Australia secretly worked with the United States to weaken a key international treaty to ban cluster bombs.
The cables show that despite a public position against the weapons, blamed for a large number of civilian casualties, Australia was prepared to pull out of international negotiations for a global ban of the weapons if it were to threaten ties with the United States, The Age reported Monday.
The U.S. position is that cluster munitions, often used in Afghanistan, are "a legitimate and useful weapon," and has repeatedly said it would not sign a treaty to ban the bombs.
The treaty on cluster munitions prohibits the use, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs, weapons that release many smaller "bomblets" onto a target area.
Diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Canberra show that in 2007, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's newly elected government told the United States it was prepared to withdraw from the negotiations if key issues were not addressed, including a loophole to allow signers of the treaty to co-operate with military forces still using cluster bombs.
The WikiLeaks disclosure comes as Australia's Parliament begins consideration of a bill to ratify Australia's signature of the cluster munitions convention, The Age reported.
