NORWAY: Ireland is one of four countries, including Norway, Austria and New Zealand, that are jointly hosting a two-day conference to campaign for a ban on cluster munitions, which began yesterday in Oslo.
Some 47 countries are attending the conference although China, Russia and the United States are staying away. The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross are also attending.
Opening the conference, the Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store said it was both "necessary and feasible" to have an international treaty in place by 2008 to impose a ban on cluster bombs.
Ireland was represented by civil servants but, speaking in Dublin, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said the Government would be hosting a similar meeting in Dublin "over the next year".
"Ireland's position is to seek a complete ban on the use of cluster munitions. In the absence of a complete ban we support the call for an immediate freeze," he said.
The minister added: "On my recent visit to the Lebanon I was briefed at first hand by our Defence Forces on the horrific and needless use of these munitions in the recent conflict there.
"I am convinced that ours is morally and politically the correct position.
" I am equally convinced that we can bring others to share it," Mr Ahern said.