But the United States still rejects the proposed global ban on the weapon, which 46 countries began negotiating in Oslo in February. Instead, Washington wants to negotiate another treaty - which goes less far - within the framework of the 1980 U.N. Convention on Conventional Weapons, known as CCW.

The U.S. position has changed "due to the importance of this issue, concerns raised by other countries, and our own concerns about the humanitarian implications of these weapons," said Ronald Bettauer, head of the U.S. delegation to the CCW meeting taking place this week in Geneva.

"It was determined that the United States should support the initiation of a negotiation on cluster munitions within the framework of the convention," Bettauer said.

The U.S. said last November that it was opposed to a new treaty because it said there were sufficient controls on the weapon in existing treaties. And it said cluster bombs, used carefully, have important military uses, such as attacking artillery positions or runways, armored columns and missile installations.

Cluster bomblets, which can be as small as a flashlight battery, are packed into artillery shells or bombs dropped from aircraft. A single container fired to destroy airfields or tanks and soldiers typically scatters some 200 to 600 of the mini-explosives over an area the size of a football field.

The United Nations has estimated that Israel dropped as many as 4 million of the bomblets in southern Lebanon last summer, with perhaps 40 percent of the submunitions failing to explode on impact.

Those that do not explode right away may detonate later at the slightest disturbance, experts say. Children are especially vulnerable because the bomblets are often an eye-catching yellow with small parachutes attached.

Just 10 days ago a cluster bomb left over from last summer's war between Israel and the militant Hezbollah group exploded, killing a Lebanese man near his house in the southern village of Bazouriyeh.

The U.S. still insists on the military use of cluster bombs, but wants to limit the impact they have on civilians and improve their accuracy.

A treaty that does not go as far as banning the use of cluster bombs and that is worked out within the U.N.'s CCW might make it possible to include China and Russia, which are opposed to the Norwegian initiative, disarmament experts said.

No international treaty, including the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war, specifically forbids the use of cluster bombs. However, the Geneva Conventions outline laws protecting civilians during conflict. Because cluster bomblets often cause civilian casualties after conflicts end - much like land mines - their use has been heavily criticized by human rights groups.

The campaign group Handicap International said it had recorded 5,475 deaths and 7,246 injuries from cluster bombs in 24 countries since 1965. The vast majority of casualties were civilians, and most were in Laos, Iraq and Vietnam.

The United States says it has spent over a billion dollars over the past decade or so to help clean up unexploded munitions in East Asia, Southeast Europe and the Middle East.

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