The Bush administration plans to announce that, in a step to lessen the dangers of land mines, it will end the use of long-lasting mines in warfare and instead concentrate on mines that go inert within hours or days, an administration official said Thursday. The official said the policy would be announced on Friday, along with a doubling in American assistance to other countries to remove mines remaining from past conflicts. The increase will bring such aid to $70 million a year, the official said. There will be limited exceptions in the switch to so-called inert land mines, but the official would not specify them. The United States has had an extensive program to remove land mines in Afghanistan, Cambodia and the Balkans, where combatants sowed farmlands and fields with mines as a deterrent against invading forces in conflicts that have been over for years. Full Story
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