FACTBOX: Cluster bombs -- a deadly legacy

(Reuters) - More than 100 nations have agreed a draft treaty banning the use of cluster bombs. While the United States, China, Russia and other key military powers are not signatories, human rights campaigners are hailing the agreement as a breakthrough.

Following are some facts about cluster bomb munitions.

* WHAT ARE THEY?

-- A cluster bomb, or cluster munition, is a weapon containing multiple explosive submunitions. They are dropped from aircraft or fired from the ground and are designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the submunitions which can cover an area the size of several football fields.

-- Anyone in that area is very likely to be killed or seriously injured. Many bomblets fail to detonate immediately, and, like land mines, can maim and kill years later.

* WHEN AND WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN USED?

-- The Soviet Union first used cluster bombs in 1943 against Nazi troops.

-- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has estimated that in Laos alone, 9 to 27 million unexploded submunitions remain, and some 11,000 people have been killed or injured.

-- At least 14 countries have used cluster bombs, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Israel, Morocco, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States. A small number of non-state armed groups have used them.

-- Cluster bombs were used extensively in the Gulf War, Chechnya, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

-- The U.N. estimated that Israel used several million submunitions in Lebanon during a 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas, who also fired more than 100 cluster munition rockets into northern Israel.

DEADLY LEGACY:

-- One third of all recorded cluster munitions casualties are children. Sixty percent of cluster bomb casualties are people injured while undertaking everyday activities.

STOCKPILES:

-- Billions of submunitions are stockpiled by some 76 countries. A total of 34 states are known to have produced more than 210 different types.

-- In March 2007 Belgium became the first country to make it a crime to invest in companies that make cluster bombs.

Sources: Reuters; Cluster Munitions Coalition: (www.stopclustermunitions.org).

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; editing by Andrew Roche)