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.

"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."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called Monday for a "visionary" global deal to ban cluster bombs at the talks in Dublin.

Under the draft treaty, signatories would never use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer cluster munitions. They would also have six years to destroy their stockpiles.

If the treaty passes in its current form, "any US military ship would be technically not able to get involved in a peacekeeping operation, in providing disaster relief or humanitarian assistance ... because military units have in their inventory those kinds of munitions," Mull warned.

Among the countries present in Dublin are France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland.

Some are seeking key amendments to limit the impact of any ban.

Dropped from warplanes or fired from artillery guns, cluster bombs explode in mid-air, randomly scattering bomblets -- ramping up the risk of civilians being killed or maimed by their indiscriminate, wide-area effect.

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