Abdeh Mohammed Khanafer, 70, was gathering herbs in a field at Aynata village near Bint Jbeil, six kilometres (four miles) from the Israeli border, when she touched a bomb that detonated, they said.

She was seriously injured in the face, arms and torso and was rushed to hospital in the port city of Tyre, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Beirut.

According to the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Centre, more than 222 people have fallen prey to cluster bombs in the past six months. The victims included 190 civilians.

At least 27 people have been killed by cluster bomb explosions since the conflict ended on August 14, 2006, according to a reliable tally.

The munitions dropped by Israel during its devastating air war against Hezbollah included more than a million cluster bombs, around 40 percent of which failed to detonate on impact, according to the United Nations.

Cluster munitions spread bomblets over a wide area from a single container. The bomblets often do not explode on impact, but can do so later at the slightest touch, making them as deadly as anti-personnel landmines.

Picture: Typical Israeli unexploded cluster bomb found in south Lebanon. There is over 1 million of these in south Lebanon

Sources: Naharnet, Ya Libnan