Caceres, Spain - Spain is about to become one of the world's first countries to eliminate cluster bombs, Defence Minister Carme Chacon said Tuesday.

Spain would have destroyed all of its cluster bombs by June 2009, the minister explained.

More than 100 countries agreed to ban cluster bombs in May, but Chacon described the deadlines for their elimination as "very long" - up to 12 years - and said Spain was moving faster.

Cluster bombs drop hundreds of individual sub-munitions over a wide area, often leaving behind unexploded "bomblets," which is why they are regarded as particularly lethal for civilians. (dpa)