A visiting UN official denounced on Tuesday Israel's act in of dropping large number of cluster bombs on south Lebanon during its offensive against Hezbollah, calling it "outrageous."

"The outrageous fact is that nearly all of these munitions were fired in the last three to four days of the war," David Shearer, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, told a news conference in Beirut.

"Outrageous because by that stage the conflict had been largely resolved in the form of (the UN Security Council) Resolution 1701," he added.

The UN has harshly criticized Israel for using the cluster bombs, especially in the last hours of the conflict before a ceasefire under the UN Resolution 1701 took effect on Aug. 14. The resolution was unanimously passed on Aug.11.

Shearer also called on Israel to coordinate in the overall bomb clearance effort, saying Israel could greatly accelerate the process by handing over the coordinates of where it fired the bombs.

"What we'd like is the number of shells that were fired in, and the actual coordinates, so we can go in and short-circuit what we're doing now and go and find those munitions straight away. But that has not happened yet," Shearer said at the news conference.

On last Wednesday, an Israeli daily quoted an Israeli army officer as saying that Israel dropped around 1,800 cluster bombs on Lebanon in its 34-day assault.

Large numbers of artillery shells, bombs and cluster bombs fired by Israeli army litter fields, houses and streets in southern Lebanon in unexploded condition.

The unexploded cluster bombs, which were estimated by the United Nations to be around 40 percent of those fired by the IDF in Lebanon, remain on the ground as dangerous munitions. Shearer said cluster bombs had killed or wounded an average of three people a day since the 34-day conflicts ended on Aug.14.

Up to date, 15 have been killed, including a child, and 83 wounded, of whom 23 were children, according to Shearer.

The UN demining teams have so far identified 516 cluster bomb strike locations and cleared 17,000 bomblets, according to UN officials.

Cluster bombs are prohibited by the United Nations for the mass casualties it caused.

However, IDF has stated that all the weapons it uses "are legal under international law and their use conforms with international standards."

Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said she was unaware of any official UN complaint or further request over cluster bomb mapping.

Source: China View

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