Gordon Brown’s call for ban on cluster bombs puts pressure on MoD

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3981089.ece

Gordon Brown intervened yesterday to signal his personal intention to phase out the use by Britain’s Armed Forces of all cluster bombs.

A statement put out by his official spokesman electrified the international conference on cluster bombs, which has been going on for three days in Dublin with the aim of reaching a treaty prohibiting their use. Human rights activists interpreted it as a significant switch in British policy.

The Downing Street spokesman said that the Prime Minister had asked the Ministry of Defence to review the risk to civilians posed by the last two remaining weapons deployed with the Armed Forces, the artillery-fired M85 and the helicopter-launched M73.

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The conference is being attended by representatives of 100 countries, but with notable absentees - the United States, Russia and Israel among them