Paris - France's National Assembly passed a bill yesterday to scrap anti-personnel landmines, implementing an international convention signed in Ottawa last December.
The Defence Minister, Mr Alain Richard, told the assembly that France had already destroyed 50,000 of its antipersonnel landmines, and half of its stocks of 1.4 million would be destroyed by the end of this year.
France is committed to destroying all its anti-personnel landmines by 2000.