Israel scattered at least 350,000 unexploded cluster bombs on south Lebanon in its war with Hezbollah, mostly when the conflict was nearing its end, leaving a deadly legacy for civilians, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.

David Shearer, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, said at a news conference in Beirut that "The outrageous fact is that nearly all of these munitions were fired in the last three to four days of the war."

He said it was "Outrageous because by that stage the conflict had been largely resolved in the form of (UN Security Council) Resolution 1701."

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The resolution came into effect three days after it was signed on August 11, bringin 34 days of fighting to an end. The truce reached has largely held since then.

During the war, Israel used the bombs to attack Hezbollah fighters, who often use village streets and civilian neighborhoods in southern Lebanon to launch rockets at Israel.

Israel has stressed that all the weapons it uses are legal under international Law, and has denied illegal use cluster bombs.

No international treaties or laws specifically forbid the use of cluster bombs, but the Geneva Conventions outline rules to protect civilians during conflict.

A UN fact sheet said the figure of 350,000 unexploded bombs was based on reports by Israeli soldiers, and excluded cluster bomb firings by conventional artillery or aircraft.

Chris Clark, manager of the UN Mine Action Coordination Center of South Lebanon, said the cluster bomb threat in the south was "extensive and, in my opinion, unprecedented."

While Israel has provided general information about where it believes unexploded ordnance might be, Clark said tactical maps given to the UN by Israeli forces withdrawing from the south were "absolutely useless" in clearance efforts.

"What we'd like is the number of shells that were fired in, and the actual coordinates, so we can go in and short-circuit what we're doing now and go and find those munitions straight away," Shearer said. "But that has not happened yet," he added.

Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said she was unaware of any official UN complaint or further request over cluster bomb mapping.

The UN has so far identified 516 cluster bomb strike locations and says 30 to 40 percent of the bombs scattered over the south failed to explode on contact.

Only about 17,000 bombs have been defused so far and the UN says clearance work could take up to 30 months.

Dalya Farran, spokeswoman for the UN Mine Action Coordination Center in the southern city of Tyre, said the task force has about 100 deminers currently at work, both from specialized aid groups and from contracted companies.

They coordinate with the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, which both also have some demining teams.

The task force worries that rains in the coming months will sweep the bombs downhill to contaminate new areas, or cover them with a thin layer of dirt that will make them invisible.

Shearer said cluster bombs had killed or wounded an average of three people a day since the war ended, with 15 killed, including a child, and 83 wounded, of whom 23 are children.

Clearance efforts have so far focused on villages, schools and playing areas, but will soon shift towards farmland, which provides 70 percent of household incomes in the south, he said.

"The cluster munitions are stopping farmers from getting out to their fields and resuming their farming activities," he said.

Cluster bombs have been found on the ground and hanging on barbed-wire fences and trees, including in citrus, banana and olive groves, Clark said. They have also turned up in the rubble of destroyed buildings, complicating reconstruction efforts.

Because cluster bombs often maim civilians after fighting ends, their use by Israel against targets in Lebanese cities and towns has been criticized by human rights groups.

Human rights groups have criticized both Israel and Hezbollah for indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the fighting that began after the Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

Shearer said it "defied belief" that so many cluster bombs were fired in the last hours of the war.