no more anti-personnel landmines

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States announced on Friday that it will no longer produce or seek to acquire anti-personnel landmines, deadly weapons that the United Nations says results in many civilian casualties.

A White House statement said the United States will not seek to replace expiring stockpiles of landmines. The announcement was made in Maputo, Mozambique, by the U.S. delegation attending a conference to review compliance with the Ottawa Convention, a global Mine Ban Treaty which became international law in 1999.

A 2008 United Nations report said each year landmines kill 15,000 to 20,000 people, and that most of them are children, women and the elderly.