Diplomats From More Than 100 Nations Seek To Scrap Cluster Bombs

The breakthrough capped more than a year of negotiations begun in Norway and pressed home over the past 10 days in Dublin. Nations are expected to sign the document in December in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

The draft treaty - obtained by The Associated Press as talks wound down with no major issues outstanding - declares that a signatory nation "undertakes never under any circumstances to use cluster munitions" nor "develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, cluster munitions."

Ireland and other lead sponsors plan to unveil the treaty Friday after its translation into several languages.

The draft treaty contains two key concessions sought by the United States - a nation that shunned the talks but nonetheless cast the biggest shadow over deliberations.

The pact would allow countries that sign the treaty to keep cooperating militarily with those that do not. Earlier drafts of the treaty sought to prohibit such cooperation, an idea fought by the United States and its NATO allies on the grounds that it would complicate joint peacekeeping work.

The treaty's detailed definition of what a cluster bomb is - and isn't - also leaves the door open for signatories to develop a future generation of smaller cluster bombs that pick targets more precisely and contain self-destruct technology.