Diplomats from the United Nations are debating the need for new laws to govern the use of 'killer robots'.

The start of a four-day meeting in Geneva has heard that existing laws will not cover weapons which may be developed in the future which could decide on targets without human involvement or intervention.

The debate is the first to be held at the United Nations about the limits and responsibilities of so-called 'lethal autonomous weapons' that could go beyond human-directed drones.

"Killer robots would threaten the most fundamental of rights and principles in international law" said Steve Goose from Human Rights Watch.

"We don't see how these inanimate machines could understand or respect the value of life, yet they would have the power to determine when to take it away" he told reporters.

Robot weapons are already deployed around the world, with the best-known being drones. The use of these is already controversial, especially over the civilian areas.

A campaign to stop the use of killer robots has already gotten underway.

"Talking about the problems posed by these future weapons is a good place to start, but a ban needs to be put in place urgently if we are to avoid a future where compassionless robots decide who to kill on the battlefield" said Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, a founding member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.

Yesterday, 20 Nobel Peace laureates issued a joint statement, expressing their support for the objective of a preemptive ban on fully autonomous weapons.

The signatories include 14 individual recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize and six organisations.

According to the joint statement, "Lethal robots would completely and forever change the face of war and likely spawn a new arms race".

Human Rights Watch issued a 26-page report, seen as the first in-depth report by a non-governmental organisation to assess the potential risk posed by these weapons.

It calls for the prohibition of development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons through international legally binding instrument.

it also calls for national laws and policies to prohibit the development, production, and use of the weapons, as well as reviews of technologies and components that could lead to fully autonomous weapons.