STOCKHOLM, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Norway will now take an initiative to reach an agreement on an international ban on cluster weapons, according to reports reaching here from Oslo on Friday.

    Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere will early next year call a meeting of concerned countries in Oslo, Norwegian Broadcasting NRK) reported.

    The hope is that this will be the start of a process which will end in an agreement on an international ban.

    One hundred nations have for several years discussed a ban on cluster weapons, but have failed to reach an agreement, according to the report.

    "We acknowledge that the established international negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement will not succeed. We therefore believe that we must take a more direct approach," Foreign Minister Stoere said to NRK.

    He likens this process to what happened with anti-personnel mines in the 1990s. The agreement on a ban on landmines in 1997 will be a model for the work for a ban on cluster weapons, Stoere said.

    Human Rights Watch has welcomed the Norwegian initiative, saying it represents a watershed in the international fight for achieving a ban on cluster weapons, NRK reported.