Former British defence chiefs and military commanders are urging the Government to scrap its stock of cluster bombs because of the danger to civilians worldwide.

As more than 100 countries gather in Dublin today to negotiate a new international treaty aimed at banning cluster munitions, the group of senior retired military figures has written to The Times and to Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, demanding that Britain's Armed Forces “move away from the use of indiscriminate...weapons which pose a threat to civilians and to our troops alike”.

The nine former commanders, including Field Marshal Lord Bramall, ex-Chief of the Defence Staff, General Lord Ramsbotham, a former Adjutant-General, General Sir Rupert Smith, who commanded the 1st Armoured Division in the 1991 Gulf War, and General Sir Michael Rose, a former Director Special Forces, declared: “If we are to be accepted as legitimate users of force then we must demonstrate our determination to employ that force only in the most responsible and accountable way.”

The international negotiations in Dublin are part of the so-called Oslo process, begun in Norway in February 2007, when 46 nations, including Britain, agreed to conclude by 2008 an agreement prohibiting cluster munitions “that cause unacceptable harm to civilians”.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials said yesterday that the British negotiators would be seeking exceptions from the ban for certain weapons: the M73 fired from rockets on a helicopter, each containing nine sub-munitions, and the M85, delivered by artillery shells, each containing 49 sub-munitions.

The officials said these weapons were still needed to protect troops on operations against possible enemy armoured advances.

The officials said the M73 and M85 did not pose a long-term threat because they self-destructed if they failed to detonate.

Steve Goose, director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch, which is campaigning for the total ban, said that any attempts to water down the treaty should be rejected completely.

He said the treaty had the potential to save countless lives now and for generations to come.

Simon Conway, director of Landmine Action, said: “If Britain is to be a force for good in the world, the Government should totally ban these weapons - no exemptions, no loopholes.”

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