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Dublin: An agreement has been reached to ban cluster bombs.
A total of 109 nations decided to back proposals for an international ban on the weapons, although the US, Russia and China will not sign the agreement.
Talks on the ban had been going on for 10 days but the draft treaty was accepted on Wednesday.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country will now ban the two types of cluster bomb it uses, said it was a big step forward.
He added: "I am confident that this agreement is in line with British interests and values, and makes the world a safer place."
Cluster bombs are a controversial weapon in which a larger casing opens before impact to drop hundred of small bomblets over a wide area.
However, not all of the bomblets explode and there have been hundreds of recorded injuries and deaths from civilians stepping on or picking up the explosives.
Israel used cluster bombs in its attack on Lebanon in 2006, and UN teams are still working in the south of the country to clear all of the bomblets.
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