The children took their protest to 10 Downing Street

The members of the pressure group Children Against the War released anti-cluster balloons and performed a short play on the tragedy of a child's death from unexploded bombs.

The aim was to highlight the continuing impact on children in Iraq of unexploded cluster munitions used by British and American forces.

Sunday's protest comes just days after a coroner called on the Ministry of Defence to review its use of cluster bombs following the death of a British soldier who was killed trying to make an area safe for Iraqi farmers.

The group made a long banner in Parliament Square reading "Kids Say No to Clusters", using brightly coloured hand prints.

Immediate ban

They then walked to Downing Street where a smaller group was allowed to carry placards and a banner up the door of Number 10.

They delivered a letter asking Prime Minister Tony Blair to explain why it was necessary to use cluster bombs.

It also demanded an immediate ban on their use and called for the government to take responsibility for clearing unexploded bombs which have already dropped.

The children were joined by other campaigners from Voices UK, and members of CND.

The children took their protest to 10 Downing Street

Children Against the War's eight-year-old spokeswoman, Sonia, from London, said she was angry that children could still be maimed and killed long after the war had ended.

On Friday an inquest heard how bomb disposal expert Chris Muir, 32, from Romsey, Hampshire, was killed while trying to defuse "bomblets" released by a cluster bomb in southern Iraq on 31 March.

The staff sergeant, from the Army School of Ammunition in Kineton, Warwickshire, had defused more than 100 bomblets when one exploded.

'Legitimate role'

An inquest into his death heard how 30% of cluster bomblets fail to detonate when dropped on sandy ground.

But an MoD spokesman defended their use.

He told BBC News Online: "We do use cluster bombs. They are legal weapons.

"As long as our potential enemies have weapons of a similar kind then it would be unfair not to allow our forces to act in a similar way.

"Cluster bombs fulfil a legitimate role and they are not indiscriminate weapons.

"We make a note where we drop them and if we can, afterwards we make sure that we clear the area."