[JURIST] Forty-six of 49 countries participating in the the two-day Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions [conference materials] on Friday agreed to an action plan to develop a new international treaty [press release] to ban the use of cluster munitions [FAS backgrounder] by 2008. Hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 46 nations vowed in the Oslo Declaration [PDF text] to conclude a legally binding international instrument prohibiting the use of cluster munitions that "cause unacceptable harm to civilians" and to "establish a framework for cooperation and assistance that ensures adequate provision of care and rehabilitation to survivors and their communities." The countries plan to continue negotiations with further meetings in Lima, Vienna and Dublin over the course of the next year. In his opening statement [text] to the conference, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Store [official profile] called for an end to the use of cluster munitions:

We must bring an end to the unacceptable human suffering caused by the use of cluster munitions. This suffering is not an inevitable and unavoidable consequence of modern war. It is the result of the use of a particular group of weapons...The time has come to agree that these weapons that cause such indiscriminate suffering should no longer be used.