Date: 2007-02-27

Holy See Lauds Cluster-Bomb Accord

ROME, FEB. 27, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See is pleased with the agreement reached at the end of the international conference held in Oslo, Norway, on cluster bombs.

"The meeting was more positive than expected, so a very wide door is now open," said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See's observer to the U.N. office in Geneva.

"Although the final document is a political statement, it has the great value of forcing the international community to equip itself with a juridical document that bans this type of weapon," he added in statements on Vatican Radio.

On Friday, 46 countries pledged to promote a worldwide ban on the bombs' use, sale and production. Only three countries -- Japan, Poland and Romania -- withheld their support of the final document.

Russia, China and the United States did not attend the meeting.

Archbishop Tomasi said that the Holy See "committed itself from the first moment in the presentation of concrete proposals to arrive at the steps that are being taken in these days."

Cluster bombs have a device that releases a great number of small bombs. It is said that more than 70 countries have a stockpile of these bombs.