China has attached great attention to landmine-related humanitarian concerns and always supports world efforts on the issue, a Chinese official said on Friday.

Although not a party to the landmine-ban Ottawa Convention, China "endorses and shares its objective, that is, to take all effective measures to eliminate the humanitarian concerns caused by anti-personnel landmines and protect the safety of civilians," said Fu Cong, deputy director-general of the Arms Control and Disarmament Department of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He stressed that the clearance of planted mines was as important as banning and restricting the use of landmines, for it eliminated the existing threats to civilians around the world.

China, which had cleared almost all landmines on its territory, was now actively taking part in international demining assistance programs, Fu said at the Fifth Meeting of the State Parties of the Ottawa Convention.

In 2002 and 2003, China sent two groups of demining experts to Eritrea for on-site training on demining and donated mine-clearance equipment to the country, he said.

In 2001, China donated detection and clearance equipment worth of 1.26 million US dollars to affected countries including Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mozambique.

China in 1998 acceded to the amended Landmine Protocol of the Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons, which struck the right balance between the humanitarian concerns and sovereign states' need for self defense, according to Fu.

It's the third time that China took part in the landmine-ban meeting as an observer. The Fifth Meeting of the State Parties of the Ottawa Convention was held here from Monday to Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2003)