By DPA,
London : The British government is preparing to agree to scrap Britain’s entire arsenal of cluster bombs, reports said Wednesday.
Officials were paving the way for the “unexpected and radical step” at a conference in Dublin aimed at an international treaty agreeing a worldwide ban on the bombs, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Cluster bombs are munitions that drop hundreds of tennis-ball sized smaller explosives known as “bomblets,” which scatter and detonate across the battlefield.
According to the Guardian, despite military opposition, the British government was prepared to get rid of the cluster munitions in Britain’s armoury.
“The prime minister is very much behind this process and wants us to sign (the treaty),” a British Foreign Office source was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
Ireland, which is chairing the talks, wants a treaty text to be adopted by Wednesday night.