Cluster bomb ban signed in Oslo, big powers absent

By John Acher

OSLO (Reuters) - More than 90 nations signed a treaty on Wednesday to ban cluster bombs that have killed and maimed thousands of people, though powerful arms producers including the United States, Russia and China, remain outside the pact.

Despite those and other military powers not signing, 18 of 26 NATO members, including Britain, France, Germany, signed the convention which many hailed as a humanitarian achievement.

Estimates of those killed and injured by cluster bombs over the decades range from tens of thousands to 100,000 and more, though campaigners say the real numbers will never be known.

Cluster bombs contain scores or even hundreds of submunitions -- or "bomblets" -- that blanket wide areas. Since not all of them explode on impact, they pose lethal danger to civilians, particularly children, killing and maiming decades after being used in combat.

"Today we confirm that cluster munitions are banned forever," said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, the first to sign in a process that will extend over two days.

By the end of Wednesday's session, 92 states out of 125 at the conference had signed the treaty at Oslo's ornate City Hall, site of the annual Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony.

Though not all will sign, officials said they hoped to have 100 or more signatures by the end of Thursday's signing session.

The U.S. State Department repeated Washington's position this week, saying that while it has similar humanitarian concerns it will not sign because a general ban "will put the lives of our military men and women, and those of our coalition partners, at risk."