The United States on Wednesday opposed a worldwide ban on cluster bombs, calling instead for "technological fixes" that would make them safer.

State Department expert Stephen Mull told reporters the United States is "deeply concerned" about the danger of such munitions, but said a ban like one proposed at a major conference in Dublin would be impractical.

"We think that it will be impossible to ban cluster munitions as many in the Oslo process would like to do, because these are weapons that have a certain military utility," Mull said.

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"So rather than ban them, we think that a much more effective way to go about this is through technological fixes that will make sure that these weapons are no longer viable once the conflict is over," Mull said.

He did not explain how such a technological solution might work.

The United States and other key cluster bomb producers and stockpilers are absent from the Ireland meeting where more than 100 nations are pursuing negotiations launched last year in Norway for a treaty banning the munitions.

Others absent are China, India, Israel, Pakistan, and Russia.

Washington takes part instead in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva, which Mull says is better because the "principal producers and users of these munitions vote and participate and work together."

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