AMMAN — Israel's use of cluster bombs during its monthlong offensive in Lebanon was denounced by the United Nations yesterday. “Those kinds of weapons shouldn't be used in civilian and populated areas... and (we need to) move very quickly to disarm them,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said after talks with Jordan's King Abdallah.

Annan is in the region to bolster an Aug. 14 cease-fire ending 34 days of warfare between Israel and Hezbollah, which left at least 1,287 people dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, as well as 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers.

On Wednesday, UN humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland warned that thousands of civilians were at risk in south Lebanon from unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Israeli forces in the last three days of the war.

He said the UN Mine Action Coordination Center had assessed nearly 85 percent of bombed areas in south Lebanon and identified “359 separate cluster bomb strike locations that are contaminated with as many as 100,000 unexploded bomblets.”

“What's shocking and I would say completely immoral is that 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict when we knew there would be a resolution, when we knew there would be an end,” he said.

“Every day, people are maimed, wounded and are killed by these ordnances,” the Egeland said. He said the bombs may have been manufactured “in a number of places,” including the United States.

“The countries that made those bombs should have a serious talk with Israel on the use of such bombs that are making our lives so miserable trying to help the Lebanese people.

“I hope the US will talk to the Israelis on that, because it is an outrage that we have 100,000 bombs in places where children, women, shopkeepers and farmers are now going to tread,” Egeland said, adding that he had not been able to get an explanation from the Israelis so far.

Last week Washington said it was investigating whether Israel broke secret agreements in its use of US-made cluster bombs in its attacks on Lebanon.

The investigation was launched by the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls.

Yesterday, Annan said he had asked the Israeli authorities to hand over maps of where the bombs were dropped.

“We have to understand that even if there is only one mine in the field it is the kind of weapon that long after the conflict, it lies there silently waiting to maim and kill,” he said at a joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib on the shores of the Dead Sea.

The UN Human Rights Council earlier this month voted to set up a commission of inquiry into “systematic” Israeli attacks on civilians in Lebanon.

An Israeli official defended the use of the cluster bombs. Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said Israel had acted in accordance with international norms. “Israel does not break any international laws in the type of armaments it uses,” she said. “Their use conforms with international standards.”

Annan also renewed his calls on Israel to lift a blockade on Lebanon swiftly and to withdraw fully from the country as soon as 5,000 UN peacekeepers are in the south.

The secretary-general, who traveled to Syria after talks in Jordan, has had little to show for his mission so far, but a senior Israeli political source said Israel would discuss freeing Lebanese prisoners for two soldiers captured by Hezbollah if the two are handed over to the Lebanese government. Israel has previously insisted on their unconditional release.

“I expect — and I did make this clear to the Israeli authorities — that when the international forces have reached 5,000 and are deployed to the south with the Lebanese (Army), it is time for them to withdraw and withdraw completely,” Annan said.

He said in a radio interview he hoped the UN peacekeepers would be in place “within a week or 10 days.”