Salt Lake City (US):  The United States has said it was committed to addressing concerns about cluster bombs but refused to sign a new ban on their use because of "disagreements" on how to solve the problem.

Diplomats from 111 countries on Wednesday agreed a wide-ranging pact to outlaw the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. The United States, China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Israel did not participate.

"The United States is deeply concerned about the humanitarian impact not only of just cluster munitions but really the whole range of munitions that are used in war," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said in a statement yesterday.

He said it was an "absolute moral obligation" to clean up unexploded ordnance and weapons after a conflict to protect innocent people, and said the United States had spent more than 1.2 billion dollars doing this since 1993.

"Now, we are very strongly committed to work to address this problem, but we may have some disagreements about the right venue and the right tactics to follow in trying to solve the problem," the statement said.

Meanwhile, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey yesterday said that the United States had not been swayed to revise its position on the issue.

"Nothing that's occurred in the last couple of days has changed (Washington's) view," he said.

Cluster munitions are among the weapons posing the gravest dangers to civilians in and after wars.

Source : PTI