Leading article: A significant step forward

Agreement appears to have been reached at an international conference in Dublin looking to ban the use of cluster bombs. A deal is expected by tomorrow. This is almost certain to outlaw the two cluster munitions presently held by UK armed forces, the M85 artillery weapon and the Apache helicopter-delivered M73. Gordon Brown's intervention yesterday in support of a deal seems to have been the breakthrough.

It would be wrong not to welcome this treaty. Cluster bombs are little more than air-delivered landmines. They are just as indiscriminate and unreliable. And the "bomblets" they spray out over a wide area linger on the battlefield just as long, leaving a legacy of horrific injury and death for those who have the misfortune to live there. The testimony in Dublin from inhabitants of lands where cluster bombs have been used – areas as geographically diverse as Cambodia, Ethiopia, Lebanon and Serbia – has made it clear just how lethal these munitions are for civilians wherever they are used. Any deal that will curb their production and use is good news.

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Yet we must be clear about the fact that this agreement will be merely a step forward; it must not be regarded as the final destination. For one thing, the question of what will happen when troops from a country that has signed the treaty are involved in operations with forces from a country that has not remains open. What will this mean for Nato and United Nations missions?

There are also suggestions that the final agreement will not prevent countries from developing future generations of weapons based on the concept of cluster-bomb style "sub-munitions". Such a loophole will make the deal worthless. But the most glaring problem is that the United States, China, Russia, Pakistan, India and Israel are not going to sign up to the treaty. If the largest militaries on the planet refuse to curb their stockpiles of these weapons, what real good can it do?

Our own government has been seeking a deal which other countries that have not been present in Dublin (notably the US) might be persuaded to accept at a later date. The problem with this approach is that that there can be no compromise when it comes to cluster bombs. Unless they are put beyond use, military chiefs will always use them in the heat of battle.

We have witnessed the dreadful results when nations try to get around the various "laws of war". America's disregard for the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan in 2001 resulted in the shame of Guantanamo Bay. Cluster bombs must be seen in this same ethical context. Like torture and landmines, they should be anathema to all civilised nations.