The sovereign wealth fund of Australia has sold out its holdings in mine and ammunition makers as the country prepares a treaty that will impose a ban on deadly weapons.

At the start of this year, Australia's Future Fund with A$74.6 billion ($81.7 billion) in assets has unloaded its share holdings in 10 companies including that of Lockheed Martin Corp and General Dynamics Corp, Bloomberg research said.

This was confirmed by an emailed statement from Future Fund spokesman Will Hetherton.

''The board's position is that it will not invest in economic activities that are illegal in Australia or contravene conventions," Hetherton said in an email quoted by Bloomberg News. "We will continue to monitor the portfolio and the activities of relevant companies to assess whether further exclusions become necessary or whether current exclusions can be removed."

Australia joined more than 90 other countries in signing the so-called Convention on Cluster Munitons in 2008, which its Parliament is still preparing to ratify a related legislation.

The accord prohibits the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster weapons able to release dozens of smaller bombs over a wide area and which have been blamed for civilian casualties.

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