Minister Admits Cluster Bomb Tally Unknown

The government has admitted it does not know how many unexploded British cluster weapons - acknowledged to be a threat to civilians - remain in Iraq, Kuwait, Serbia and Kosovo.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the 1991 Gulf war and the Kosovo bombing campaign nine years ago, the RAF dropped "dumb" cluster bombs of the kind now banned by the government.

The army fired Israeli-made M85 cluster weapons during the attack on Basra in early 2003, when, according to the Ministry of defense, the weapons made a "direct contribution to saving the lives of UK service personnel". The MoD wants to keep the M85 despite calls for a ban on all cluster weapons at international negotiations in Dublin last week.

Cluster munitions scatter "bomblets" over a wide area. Many fail to explode, posing a threat to civilians, especially children. Cluster devices caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system, according to human rights groups.

The admission came from the armed forces minister, Bob Ainsworth, who told Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, that military and civilian groups had been clearing unexploded ordnance used by all parties in the conflicts but that getting accurate estimates of British unexploded ordnance was "impracticable".

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, told the Guardian yesterday: "These weapons have a terrible legacy, yet the government appears to have no idea how many it has used and how many have been made safe. It is incredible the government cannot even provide an estimate as to the nature of the threat."

Davey urged David Miliband, the foreign secretary, not to bow to pressure from the MoD or from the US over the continuing storage of cluster munitions on British soil.

Britain has proposed amendments to the draft Dublin convention, including one that would allow the US to continue using the weapons and let them be stored at US bases in Britain.