\n
<\/p>\n
GENEVA<\/strong>: Nearly 130 countries on Saturday agreed on a text defining lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) \u2014 \u201ckiller robots\u201d to their critics \u2014 a first step toward talks on a possible international treaty to regulate them.<\/p>\n The text agreed upon has not yet been made public \u2014 but campaign groups following the talks have already criticized leading countries for dragging their feet on the issue.<\/p>\n Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen announced the agreement, by 128 countries, on Saturday. The Netherlands has been overseeing the talks.<\/p>\n Countries are already developing and using weapons capable of selecting targets and using force against them without human intervention.<\/p>\n But the International Committee of the Red Cross warned in a statement that \u201cthe unconstrained development and use of autonomous weapon systems pose serious legal, ethical and humanitarian challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n The ICRC and several campaigning groups have called for international legally binding rules to restrict and regulate their use.<\/p>\n Nicole van Rooijen, executive director of Stop Killer Robots, an international alliance of campaign groups, accused the United States, Russia and their allies of trying to weaken the agreed text.<\/p>\n Lex International, a Geneva-based philanthropic group funding work on key policy issues, also criticized some nations\u2019 position.<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States, Russia, India and Israel are among the key opponents of negotiations,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governments of Brazil, Ireland, and Norway are leading efforts to get such negotiations started in November,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n UN member states will decide at November talks of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons whether to move toward an international treaty regulating such weapons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n