Children and adults from Washington, DC held the 1st Annual 'Cluster Bomb Olympics' organised by religious groups and others this weekend outside the White House, before today's negotiation of a global cluster bomb ban treaty in Dublin.

Campaigners in the US will call on Monday for a congressional ban on cluster bombs. The civilian victims of cluster bombs will be highlighted as part of a Global Day of Action that includes activities in 20 countries.

On the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church and the Baptist Union of Great Britain have called on the UK Government to end their use of cluster bombs by UK forces.

A major North American peace church agency, Mennonite Central Committee, is adding its weight to a Spring mobilisation against the cruelty of cluster bombs - via a bill in the US Senate.

The Methodist church in the UK has strengthened its call for a ban on the use of cluster munitions, urging the UK Government to take action.

At least a million unexploded rocket and artillery cluster bombs are posing huge risks to people returning to their homes in southern Lebanon after the recent war, reports relief and development agency Christian Aid and its regional partners.

The discovery of hundreds of US-made cluster bombs among the tens of thousands of unexploded munitions carpeting the south of Lebanon, has led to calls on Washington to impose a moratorium on sales of the weapons to Israel reports the Independent newspaper.

The Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations has called for a moratorium on submunitions, otherwise known as 'scatterable mines' or 'cluster bombs'.