U.S. says Israel may have broken arms pact

The United States said on Monday Israel may have violated an arms agreement with Washington in its use of U.S.-supplied cluster bombs during its war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon last summer.

"There were likely violations," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, adding that a classified report is being sent to the U.S. Congress on Monday by the State Department indicating violations of the pact by Israel over the use of cluster bombs.

The findings, though preliminary, has prompted a contentious debate within the administration over whether the United States should penalize Israel for its use of cluster munitions against towns and villages where Hezbollah had placed its rocket launchers, the New York Times said in a report on Sunday.

The State Department is required to notify Congress even of preliminary findings of possible violations of the Arms Export Control Act, the statute governing arms sales. Meanwhile, the State Department has said a final determination about whether Israel violated the agreement on use of cluster bombs was still being debated.

Any sanctions against Israel would be an extraordinary move by the Bush administration, a strong backer of Israel, and several U. S. officials said they expected little further actions, if any, on the matter, the New York Times report said.

The report said that Israel gave the State Department a dozen- page report last year in which it acknowledged firing thousands of American cluster munitions into southern Lebanon but denied violating agreements that prohibit their use in civilian areas.

Cluster munitions are anti-personnel weapons that scatter tiny but deadly bomblets over a wide area. The grenadelike munitions, tens of thousands of which have been found in southern Lebanon, have cause 30 deaths and 180 injuries among civilians since the end of Israel-Hezbollah war last summer, according to the UN. Mine Action Service.