U.S. says cluster bomb ban could jeopardise peacekeeping

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A proposed global ban on cluster bombs could jeopardise U.S. participation in joint peacekeeping and disaster relief operations around the world, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

Representatives of over 100 nations are meeting in Dublin to hammer out an agreement against use of cluster munitions, although the United States, China and Russia are not participating. Critics say such munitions are unreliable and indiscriminate.

But Stephen Mull, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, said the weapons have a "certain military utility."

He told reporters the proposed ban being discussed could "criminalise" joint military operations between countries that signed the ban and those that did not.

"For example, if the convention passes in its current form, any U.S. military ship would be technically not able to get involved in a peacekeeping operation like disaster relief, or humanitarian assistance, as we are doing right now in the aftermath of the earthquake in China and the typhoon in Burma, not to mention everything we did in southeast Asia after the tsunami in December of 2004," Mull said.

"And that's because most U.S. military units have in their inventory these kinds of weapons," he said.

Cluster munitions open in mid-air and scatter as many as several hundred "bomblets" over wide areas. They often fail to explode, creating virtual mine fields that can kill or injure anyone who comes across them -- often curious children.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told the delegates in Dublin earlier this week that the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs should be prohibited.