The Pentagon is changing its policy on cluster bombs and plans to reduce the danger of unexploded munitions in the deadly explosives. The policy shift, outlined in a three-page memo signed by US defence secretary Robert Gates, would require that after 2018, more than 99% of the bomblets in a cluster bomb must detonate. Limiting the amount of live munitions left on the battlefield would lessen the danger to innocent civilians who have been killed or severely injured when they accidentally detonate the bombs. Also, by next June, the Defence Department will begin to reduce its inventory of cluster bombs that do not meet the new safety requirements. The new Defence Department plan comes more than a month after 111 nations, including many of America's key Nato partners, adopted a treaty outlawing all current designs of cluster...
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