The New Zealand government's public pension funds are investing in companies that manufacture cluster bombs despite a national commitment to the international Cluster Munitions Convention of 2008, the opposition Green Party claimed Friday.

Finance Minister Bill English revealed to the Green Party in a response to a written question in Parliament that the government's National Provident Fund and Government Superannuation Fund had invested, through trusts and investment vehicles, 2.2 million NZ dollars (1.83 million U.S. dollars) in three U.S. weapons companies.

The companies -- Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and L-3 Communications -- were all manufacturers of cluster bombs, which scatter smaller bombs that can sit unexploded for long periods until they explode when disturbed.

The investments violated section 10 of the Cluster Munitions Prohibition Act 2009, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said in a statement.

"New Zealanders will be horrified to know their government is profiting from the production of cluster munitions -- bombs that kill so indiscriminately, 98 percent of all reported casualties from them are civilians," Norman said.

"When we adopted the Cluster Munitions Convention in 2008, we made a commitment to 'never under any circumstances assist or encourage' the cluster munitions industry," he said.

"Profiting from cluster bombs is simply immoral and must end."

Norman had sought an opinion from New Zealand's Auditor General, which stated that the law prevented the funds investing in " companies involved in cluster munitions."

Norman called on English to order the two funds to back off from investment vehicles that hold companies involved in the manufacture of cluster bombs and ensure they improved their screening systems to avoid such investments in future.

The Parliamentary questions also revealed the two funds had investments in trusts and investment vehicles that included tobacco companies and companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons, he said.

"It's not in our interests, or our children's, to profit from the proliferation of nuclear weapons, cluster munitions, or the expansion of the tobacco industry," said Norman.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which covers 111 party and signatory states, became international law when it was implemented in 2010. Endi

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