Oslo says it will now invite countries to work outside the UN system to agree a ban modelled on the Ottawa Convention restricting the use of landmines.
Cluster bombs are blamed for killing and maiming thousands of civilians.
The small, orange-coloured munitions are packed into larger, conventional bombs which explode in mid-air after being dropped from aircraft.
The blast scatters hundreds of the smaller bomblets over a large area.
According to activists, the bomblets frequently fail to detonate until they are disturbed by people on the ground - effectively making them as lethal as landmines.
A recent report by the Handicap International charity said civilians accounted for 98% of cluster-bomb casualties.
The report estimated some 100,000 civilians had been struck by cluster bombs, many of them children.
Ottawa Convention
Norway says it plans to ask countries to meet in Oslo to begin talks on banning cluster bombs.
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told the Associated Press news agency he will "invite countries that have shown an interest and a will to take urgent action to address the cluster munition problem".
UN bodies, the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations would also be invited he said.
No date for the talks was given.
A similar initiative led to the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, which has now been signed by 154 countries.
'Inadequate proposal'
Calls for curbs on using cluster bombs have been growing since Israel's month-long conflict with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon this summer.
De-mining agencies say the conflict has left behind some one million unexploded cluster bombs in Lebanon.
But despite intense lobbying by the Red Cross and by some European countries the Geneva conference failed to agree a ban on the weapons.
Countries such as the United States and Russia, which have big stockpiles of cluster munitions, tried hard to keep the issue off the agenda completely.
A proposal put forward by Britain to talk about cluster munitions in the future was finally adopted but was dismissed by humanitarian organisations as inadequate.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6158806.stm
Published: 2006/11/17 15:44:05 GMT
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