92 Nations Sign Cluster-Bomb Ban; US, Russia Don't

The group Handicap International says 98 percent of cluster-bomb victims are civilians, and 27 percent are children.

Ollie Pile, an operations manager with de-mining charity The Halo Trust in Georgia, left, and one...

Ollie Pile, an operations manager with de-mining charity The Halo Trust in Georgia, left, and one of his local deminers, David Japaridze, excavating an unexploded ordinance, which was used in August fighting in the conflict between Russia and Georgia in the Georgian village of Akhaldaba in this Friday, Oct. 31, 2008, photo. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

(AP)

Organizers hoped that more than 100 of the 125 countries represented will have signed by the end of the conference on Thursday. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said 92 countries did so on Wednesday.

The treaty must be ratified by 30 countries before it takes effect.

His country, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs 18 months ago, was the first to sign, followed by Laos and Lebanon, both hard-hit by the weapons.

Britain, formerly a major stockpiler of cluster munitions, also signed the treaty, which Foreign Secretary David Miliband said showed that a NATO country can defend itself without cluster weapons.

Miliband said he would urge President-elect Barack Obama's administration to reconsider the U.S. stance.

The Bush administration says a comprehensive ban would hurt world security.

"Although we share the humanitarian concerns of states signing the (accord), we will not be joining them," the U.S. State Department said in a statement. "Such a general ban on cluster munitions will put the lives of our military men and women, and those of our coalition partners, at risk."

In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said his government had decided not to join the treaty, and instead believes the issue of cluster bomb use should be addressed through the U.N. Convention on Conventional Weapons.

The anti-cluster bomb campaign gathered momentum after Israel's monthlong war against Hezbollah in 2006, when it scattered up to 4 million bomblets across Lebanon, according to U.N. figures.

"In southern Lebanon, for more than two years, children and the elderly have been victimized (by cluster munitions)," Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Saloukh said.

Activists hoped the treaty would pressure non-signers into shelving the weapons, as many did with land mines after a 1997 treaty banning them.