Dublin: Delegates from 111 nations agreed a landmark treaty to ban cluster bombs, Ireland s foreign ministry said, in a deal that lacks the backing of major producers and stockpilers of the lethal weapons.

After 10 days of painstaking negotiations at Croke Park stadium in Dublin, diplomats yesterday agreed the wording of a wide-ranging pact to outlaw the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions by its signatories.

It also provides for the welfare of victims and the clearing of areas contaminated by unexploded cluster bombs.

The agreement will be formally adopted on Friday, and signed in Oslo on December 2-3. Signatories would then need to ratify it.

"This is a very strong and ambitious text which nevertheless was able to win consensus among all delegations," said Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin. "It is a real contribution to international humanitarian law."

But crucially, the United States, Russia, China, India, Israel and Pakistan all major producers and stockpilers of cluster bombs -- were all absent from the Dublin talks, and thus not part of the agreement.

The Irish Department for Foreign Affairs said 111 participating states and 18 observer countries attended.

The process "has been characterised by a true determination on all sides to reach an ambitious and consensual outcome," the ministry said.

The treaty requires the destruction of stockpiled munitions within eight years -- though it leaves the door open for future, more precise generations of cluster munitions that pose less harm to civilians.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterady announced in London that Britain would withdraw all its cluster bombs from service in a bid to "break the log jam" in the Dublin talks.

Source : PTI