Q: Mr. President, did the Prime Minister convince you to sign on to the land mine treaty?

THE PRESIDENT: No, we haven't discussed that. But let me just tell you -- we haven't discussed that yet here; we had a conversation about it on the telephone the other day. The Prime Minister has worked very hard to create the biggest possible tent for everyone to be in to this treaty. I want to first say that I think Canada has done a remarkable and an important thing in trying to get the countries of the world to agree not to produce, deploy, or sell land mines. And I applaud that.

The United States, I believe, has destroyed more land mines since I've been President than any other country in the world -- 1.5 million in our own stocks; we're about to destroy another 1.5 million. We also have spent about half the money spent in the world on demining activities. We lost a plane off the coast of Africa just a few weeks ago and all of its crew having deposited a demining team in Africa. And we're increasing by 25 percent our demining budget.

Now, because of the unique circumstances of our program, we may not be able to sign on. We don't think we can sign on to the agreement as it's presently written because of our responsibilities in Korea and because our antitank defenses are not covered by the words, the plain words of the treaty as other countries' antitank defenses are. Everybody recognizes they're legitimate. And I hope we can work that out, but if we can't, it should not diminish the fact that Canada has done an enormously thing.

Simultaneously with that, what I am trying to do is to encourage all the major producers and sellers of land mines in the world who are not yet part of -- out of the Ottawa regime, other commitment, to make appropriate commitments not to produce, deploy or sell these mines. And I will continue to do that.

So I'm going to work together with the Prime Minister on this as best I can. And if we are not able to sign it because of those two issues, that should not diminish the achievement that Canada has made to get other countries in this. And meanwhile, we will continue to be the world's number one destroyer of land mines and we will continue to spend more money and exert more efforts to bring these mines out of the ground that are killing people around the world.

I believe I was the first world leader at the United Nations to call for a total ban on land mine production and deployment. And I strongly support what the Prime Minister is doing. And when they were meeting in Oslo we implored the people there to give us the exceptions we needed, recognizing that in the Korean Peninsula we've never had indiscriminate use of land mines that have had -- put civilians, children at risk; and that we have the unusual situation of having a huge North Korean army there just a few miles from Seoul and no way to stop the movement there without leaving the mine fields there; and that we have a situation with our antitank weapons which we have tested over and over again to prove that they don't amount to antipersonnel weapons that can be left in the field and cause danger to innocent civilians.

But the people who were at Oslo decided they would not try to accommodate us for whatever reason. That was their legitimate reason. A number of world leaders said they thought I was right, but that they couldn't get it done. Now, I'm not going to fight over that. I think that's silly. We should look at the evidence. What is your record on land mines? Which nation has destroyed the most land mines? Which nation is doing the most to promoted demining? The answer to that is the United States.

And I support what Canada has done. And I think it is a great mistake to make this whole story about whether we will sign on to this, or not. That was a decision made by people who decided that our antitank weapons were not entitled to be protected. My first responsibility, since I may have to send our troops into conflict situations on behalf of a lot of the nations that have signed on to this treaty, is to make sure that if I do that I can protect them. Now, that is my position.

So I regret the fact that our antitank systems are the only ones in the world that weren't covered by this. They have their position on that. They have their reasons that because of where they were in the Oslo process they couldn't change. That's fine. It's a great mistake to make that the story.

Canada has done a magnificent thing getting all these countries involved in this, continuing to raise the issue. We have done a great thing by destroying the weapons and by leading the world's demining effort. And we should work together as closely as we can and not let the differences over the wording of this treaty and whether we sign on the bottom line at some time or another obscure the fact that we are moving to rid the world of these antipersonnel weapons. It is a big deal and it should be seen as a positive deal that should not be obscured by how this whole business about our participation in the treaty developed.