An international conference, taking place in Dublin, has tonight accepted a draft treaty to ban the use of cluster munitions.
The conference attended by representatives from 109 countries including Britain, Australia and South Africa, though not the United States, has agreed on a draft to ban the use of such munitions within 8 years.
"It's a strong and robust prohibition on all known cluster munitions," Christian Ruge, a member of the Norwegian delegation, said.
The draft will be submitted to a plenary session on Friday but approval is now seen as a formality.
Cluster munitions open in mid-air and scatter as many as several hundred "bomblets" over a wide area. They often fail to explode, creating virtual minefields that can kill or injure anyone who finds them later - often curious children.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been pushing his reluctant military leaders to ban the use of the munitions and ordered a ministry of defence review earlier this month.
"In order to secure as strong a convention as possible, in the last hours of negotiation we have issued instructions that we should support a ban on all cluster bombs, including those currently in service by the UK," Mr Brown said in a statement before the conference's acceptance of the draft.
The United States says it sees "certain military utility" for the weapons, and is not attending the meeting.
It has been accused by activists of pushing allies such as Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Australia to try to weaken the treaty.
The Irish delegation attending the international conference on cluster bombs last night said it was "quietly confident" that agreement would be reached by Friday on an "ambitious treaty" banning cluster bombs and ridding the vast majority of stocks of cluster munitions.