UN: More than 90 countries, including major military powers, have agreed a ground-breaking treaty to cut the huge number of civilians casualties from munitions left over from armed conflicts.
Under the pact, set to be rubber-stamped today by the 92 member-states of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, countries must clean up their unexploded cluster and mortar bombs, missiles and other munitions at the end of fighting.
The new rules, which will be legally binding on signatory states, will come into force when the new protocol to the convention has been formally ratified by 20 member-states.
Diplomats said it was the first time the US Bush administration, which has expressed scepticism about the effectiveness of international arms control treaties, had signed up for a new global weapons pact.
"With the protocol, parties to a conflict have a clear responsibility to clear armaments, to eliminate the threat to lives," Indian ambassador Mr Rakesh Sood, who acted as chairman of the negotiating group, said.
Although there are no agreed figures for the victims of explosive remnants of war - the technical term for the lethal debris - activists say it runs into tens of thousands of injured, maimed and killed each year.
Sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 24 countries and territories are strewn with abandoned or unexploded ordnance, is probably the world's worst-affected area.
The International Committee of the Red Cross criticised the vagueness of some of the wording.
"We think that overall it is a very good agreement, but now it needs to be implemented," said Mr Peter Herby, co-ordinator of the Swiss-based ICRC's munitions and arms unit.
The seven articles of the treaty commit a state to taking responsibility for any unexploded or abandoned ordnance in areas under its direct control or, where it is not in control, it must provide the information needed for others to mark dangerous areas and clear and destroy munitions.
Although the rules could be difficult to enforce, particularly when it comes to rebel groups, diplomats said the treaty would become a source of moral pressure as in the case of the international ban on landmines.
Landmine Action, a British NGO, said however it was disappointed there had been no agreement to halt the use of cluster bombs until the technology had improved enough to cut an often high "dud rate".
Instead, countries agreed to continuing studying improvements to weaponry to improve reliability.