Washington -- A senior State Department official says there are "signs of success" that the global tragedy of landmines threatening civilian populations is turning around in places such as Cambodia, Mozambique, Afghanistan, and Latin America.

Ambassador Donald Steinberg, the new U.S. representative to the President and secretary of state for global humanitarian demining, says continued efforts by the international community to promote landmine awareness and mine removal should result in the next decade in a world that is "essentially mine safe."

Steinberg told reporters at the Washington-based Foreign Press Center February 26 that 60 nations are affected by the existence of anti-personnel landmines (APL) and statistics show that some 25,000 people suffer from their effects. But the annual number of landmine victims in Cambodia has been reduced by 50 percent in recent years, he said, due in large measure to education programs.

Steinberg, a former U.S. ambassador to Angola, said Mozambique has had hundreds of thousands of displaced persons return home following successful demining efforts. And in Afghanistan, he said, hundreds of square miles have been cleared for safe passage.

The landmine problem is a serious one, he said, with insurgent groups using mines, not so much for military purposes, but "to sow disorder and create a sense of instability." Solving the tragedy of landmines goes beyond their physical removal and controlling exports, Steinberg said, and extends into the field of conflict resolution.

Too often mines are the legacy of conflicts, Steinberg said, and strong diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict at the outset may mean avoiding a situation in which warring parties are tempted to use mines indiscriminately. He cited Latin America as one area where mines continue to surface long after conflicts have ended.

Steinberg pointed to efforts by Peru and Ecuador to implement a demarcation and demining program which the U.S. is supporting, initially, with a grant of around $1 million. Wherever countries are ready to embrace peace and national reconciliation "we need to stand with them," he added.

Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Eric Newsom, who appeared with Steinberg, said it is important not only to mobilize the international community to eliminate embedded landmines, but to foster cooperation to halt the laying of any new mines. The challenge, he said, is to motivate the international community to pursue "both sides of the problem" to end the existing humanitarian crisis within the next 10 years or so.

"The United States is, by far, the most aggressive country in the world in the field of humanitarian demining," Newsom declared, committing $100 million for mine removal in 24 countries this year alone. Three or four years ago, he said, Washington was helping a half dozen countries and spending only $15 million on the problem.

He termed the increase "a testament to the commitment of this administration, of the United States, as a whole, to trying to help cope with this problem by going out to mine-affected countries" to institute training programs and provide equipment essential for humanitarian demining and fund programs so that foreign governments can recover from the afflictions caused by mines.

Newsom and Steinberg were questioned closely about the U.S. position on the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines. The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, as it is formally known, was negotiated in 1997 and subsequently signed by 130 nations; the United States was not among them.

Burkino Faso was the 40th nation to ratify the accord last year and it will enter into force on March 1. Steinberg said it is regrettable that the United States cannot participate in the treaty in "its current form," but President Clinton has committed to signing it by the year 2006, if successful alternatives to APL can be developed.

Newsom pointed out that however praiseworthy the objectives of the Ottawa Treaty may be, it does nothing to remove the estimated 60 million landmines currently in the ground that are killing and maiming civilians around the world. The treaty "is prospective in its effect," he stressed. The United States, he added, has sought "to put its money where its mouth is" by spending a total of $250 million on humanitarian mine action in the past five years and another $100 million in 1999.

Newsom said the United States made a serious, though ultimately unsuccessful, effort to persuade other participants in the Oslo negotiations leading up to the Ottawa Treaty to allow it to be structured so that it could carry out its global responsibilities for a limited period through the use of mixed anti-tank munitions (anti-tank landmine systems with APL mixed in for their protection).

Both officials said the United States could not sign the Ottawa Convention because of U.S. defense responsibilities to other nations, which include the use of anti-tank type mines. The Defense Department insists that mixed munitions are required to protect U.S. military forces in certain parts of the world, particularly on the Korean Peninsula. Newsom pointed to studies which have shown that the use of mixed munitions during a possible future Korean conflict could reduce U.S. military casualties by 30 percent.

The assistant secretary emphasized that American landmines are not part of the worldwide humanitarian problem because they are very sophisticated, expensive devices, the bulk of which are designed to self-destruct in a few hours or days. If those APL fail to self-destruct, as designed, they will become inert when their batteries run out after a few days. "There is no known civilian casualty," Newsom said, "that has ever been caused by the use of one of these self-destructing landmines."

President Clinton's commitment to sign the Ottawa Treaty by 2006 (assuming suitable landmine alternatives can be found), he said, is "a demonstration of the seriousness of our commitment." Newsom acknowledged that the success of Pentagon research and development efforts on landmine alternatives will not be known for "some years."

He also pointed out that three million of the older, non-self-destruct American landmines have been destroyed. What remains in this category exists solely for training and defense in South Korea, Newsom said.

The United States has stated that it will stop using all APL everywhere, except on the Korean Peninsula, by 2003.

Newsom also said the United States is seeking an international treaty banning the export of all APL through the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (the U.S. does not export landmines), and Senate ratification of an amendment to the protocol of the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Steinberg was asked specifically about the deteriorating situation in Angola and what it means for demining. Fighting there has forced a halt to most demining he said, but efforts should continue to promote mine awareness and to train indigenous deminers.

He noted that plans are under way to distribute half a million Superman and Wonder Woman comic books in Portuguese to educate children about the hazards of mines in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. He also urged continued support for non-governmental organizations such as the Norwegian People's Aid and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.