Washington -- The United States wants to focus all its attention "on getting landmines out of the ground" and providing assistance to landmine victims, a senior State Department official says.

Speaking at the conclusion of the Washington Conference on Global Humanitarian Demining on May 22, he said the United States is ready now to move from the coordination to the implementation stage of humanitarian demining.

He also said delegates to the two-and-a-half day conference reacted positively to an important clarification of U.S. policy on landmines. The United States has agreed now to sign, by 2006 or sooner, the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning landmines, if suitable alternatives to anti-personnel landmines and "mixed munitions" can be identified.

"The search of alternatives is a real one," the official insisted during a news briefing at the State Department. Although the Defense Department has yet to develop any practical alternatives, he said "it is putting serious money into the search."

The official said there has been an ongoing effort by the Clinton administration and Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat-Vermont) to achieve "some common ground" on the landmine issue. Leahy was one of the major congressional sponsor of legislation to impose a one-year moratorium on landmines beginning in February 1999.

Now with the U.S. commitment to sign the Ottawa Treaty by 2006 -- assuming suitable landmine alternatives are found -- Leahy has agreed to a presidential waiver of the moratorium. Secretary of State Albright, in fact, expressed her pleasure on May 21 to the delegates "at the recent understanding reached between the administration and Senator Leahy.

President Clinton, the briefer said, fully understands the humanitarian consequences of landmines, but is also balancing his responsibilities as commander-in-chief to provide for the safety of U.S. military personnel. The administration's position was explicated in a recent letter from National Security Affairs Adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger to Leahy.

"This is a solemn commitment on the part of this administration," the official explained, with the Defense Department wedded to "an aggressive search for alternatives." He also said clarification of U.S. policy and the communication of U.S. assurances to Leahy were "well received" by delegates attending the Washington Conference on May 20-22. Leahy, in fact, was one of the keynote speakers to address the 100 conference participants.

Another speaker was former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Tim Wirth, who is now overseeing the $1,000 million donation to the U.N. Foundation by CNN's Ted Turner. During the course of the Washington Conference, the official said the U.N. Foundation announced it would earmark one of its first grants, totaling $3.5 million, for demining activities.

The briefing official said the results of the conference were "very successful for the purposes we had set out." He noted that it was not designed to be a pledging conference, but, rather, a working conference generating informal discussions among the 21 major donor nations that deal with humanitarian demining and victim assistance. International and regional organizations as well as non-governmental organizations also participated.

The official said they discussed such subjects as international coordination, donor support groups, the scope of the landmine problems in various parts of the world, Level One mine surveys, new technologies, and how to match needs with resources. Another important focus of the conference was a discussion on how to mobilize the private sector to address landmine hazards. Public-private partnerships are considered the way of the future to eradicate embedded mines and alleviate the suffering of victims.

A joint press statement issued by representatives of the United Nations, the European Commission (EC), and the United States before the close of the Washington Conference indicated that key members of the demining community will meet again in the fall in Italy. Under the organizational auspices of the EC, participants will examine and assess existing landmine detection and removal technology and discuss urgent future requirements and needs.

The statement noted the difficulty of detecting and destroying landmines "because of the great range of variable properties of the over 500 types of landmines in the field, combined with the variety of soils, topography, vegetation, and climate." Demining efforts, it noted, are very slow, potentially dangerous and not cost-effective because "the majority of humanitarian demining done today uses World War II era equipment."

The international community now views the research and development of new technologies as a way to accelerate the current rate of humanitarian demining and to "save lives and conserve scarce resources," according to the statement.