PRESIDENT Clinton has decided the United States will limit the use of anti personnel landmines that do not self destruct. He will also seek a global ban on all landmines by 2001, the White House said yesterday.
The policy resolves a bitter internal debate that has raged within the administration for months, White House spokesman Mr Mike McCurry said.
"Consistent with the President's speech to the UN General Assembly in 1994, he will call for an international effort to ban anti personnel landmines," he said.
"He will direct that our armed forces discontinue the use of so called `dumb' landmines - that is, those that do not deactivate within a set period of time. The ban on dumb landmines will be immediate."
However, Mr McCurry added that Mr Clinton's directive would not apply to the Korean peninsula or to training "because the President, as commander in chief, has to protect those who are in harm's way in service to nation".
Mr Clinton was under pressure from international groups and some members of Congress, including Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, to lead the way in ending production of the weapons.
Landmines kill or maim an estimated 25,000 people a year, or one every 20 minutes, and more than 100 million mines now lie buried or hidden in 64 countries.
Some 38 nations support an immediate ban, and several prominent members of the US defence establishment, including retired Gulf War commander Norman Schwartzkopf, also favour such a move.
But the Pentagon says landmines are essential to defend South Korea from a possible North Korean attack. The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Perry, has said they were helping prevent a war.
Mr McCurry said Mr Clinton's decision "reflects the President's responsibility both to those who have been victims of these mines, but also to people who serve their country in dangerous places like the (Korean) DMZ (Demilitarised Zone).
"His goal is the total elimination of all anti personnel landmines, subject to negotiations with others in the international community."
However, Mr Clinton's decision brought criticism from anti mine activists like Mr Leahy,
"The world anticipated strong US leadership to solve this humanitarian calamity. Instead, this decision will slow down the international effort to ban anti personnel mines," he said.
Some critics privately said that Mr Clinton clearly wanted to avoid an election year clash with the Pentagon.
"President Clinton has missed a golden opportunity to assert leadership on what his administration has acknowledged as one of the most important international humanitarian issues", Mr Stephen Goose, programme director of the Human Rights Watch arms project, said in a statement.