Annan urges freeze on use of cluster bombs

GENEVA, Nov 7 (Reuters) United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for a freeze on the use of cluster bombs in or near populated areas, saying they had ''atrocious, inhumane effects'' on civilians.

Debate over the use of the weapon has intensified after Israel dropped them on southern Lebanon in its month-long war against the Islamist Hezbollah militia this year.

''I call on you to freeze the use of cluster munitions against military assets located in or near populated areas. At the same time, we should all remember that placing military assets in such areas is illegal under international humanitarian law,'' Annan said.

In a speech read out on his behalf at the start of an international arms control review conference, Annan also called for freezing ''the transfer of those cluster munitions that are known to be inaccurate and unreliable''.

Cluster bombs burst into bomblets and spread out near the ground.

While some aim to destroy tanks, others are designed to kill or main people over a wide area.

Unexploded bomblets can pose a risk to civilians for years after a conflict has ended. Children are seen as especially vulnerable as they do not know the threat the bomblets pose.

Cluster bombs are not banned by an international legal treaty.

Belgium is the only country to have banned their production and use.

TICKING TIMEBOMB ''UNICEF hopes that these and other forums will raise worldwide awareness of an issue that is quite literally a ticking timebomb for children,'' UNICEF spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told a news briefing today.

Five of the 16 people killed by unexploded ordnance in Lebanon since the August 14 truce were children, he said. The toll is feared to rise as families go into their fields to harvest olives and other crops, he added.

Civilians, a quarter of them children, have made up almost all the victims of cluster bombs over the last three decades, according to a report last week by Handicap International.

The controversial weapons, which the group wants banned, had killed, wounded or maimed 11,044 people of whom 98 per cent were civilians. The true figure may be 10 times higher, it said.

The talks will review a 1980 international treaty on Certain Conventional Weapons, ratified by 100 countries, which bars or limits the use of especially injurious conventional arms.

The issue of cluster bombs is expected to be debated, with some countries calling for action, but no decision is expected to be taken at the 10-day talks in Geneva, diplomats said.

Annan's demand that the munitions not be used in populated areas echoed a call by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which also yesterday urged the destruction of stocks of inaccurate or unreliable munitions.

Reuters PB VV1951