FINE GAEL foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins urged the Government to raise the banning of cluster munitions with the new US president.
He said that for eight years, the presidency of George Bush had resisted attempts to restrict and ban those weapons.
"I appeal to the new president, whether it is Senator Obama or Senator McCain, to follow Gordon Brown's lead and take a principled stand against these evil weapons," he said.
Mr Timmins said that John McCain had broken with George Bush and his party on the issue of the use of torture, calling for it to be halted in all cases.
"I hope that today will see the election of a president who will take a principled stand on cluster munitions by telling the US military that they can no longer be used," he added.
Mr Timmins said that the Government should also raise the matter with Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. "We must not mince our words in putting on the record the unacceptability of their behaviour," he added.
He was speaking during the debate on the Cluster Munitions and Anti-Personnel Mines Bill 2008, which was introduced by Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.
Mr Martin said that the principal purpose of the Bill was to make provision in domestic law for the obligations the State would assume under the convention on cluster munitions.
The convention had been adopted by consensus at the conclusion of the Dublin diplomatic conference at Croke Park last May.
It will be opened for signature at a ceremony in Oslo next month and will come into force six months after 30 states have ratified it.
Labour spokesman Michael D Higgins said that the degree of consensus on the issue in the House was incredible and welcome, but they should bear in mind the question of how many permanent members of the UN Security Council were represented at the Croke Park conference and with what consequences.
Millions of cluster munitions had been used in the past half-century or so and billions had been stockpiled by 76 governments.
"This is the scale of the problem, but people are excessively polite about, for example, the actions of the Israeli government during the conflict in southern Lebanon, where our soldiers served," he added.
