COPENHAGEN, July 1 (AFP) - Some 250 delegates will gather in Denmark on Tuesday to discuss how to improve technology for disabling the some 110 million land mines waiting to go off in about 70 mostly developing countries.
"Millions of mines have been laid in the world, and more and more sophisticated mines are being produced, while the technology for destroying them has not been improved in 50 years," said Danish Cooperation Minister Poul Nielson, the conference host.
China and Pakistan, both of which manufacture mines, will not be among the 48 countries sending delegates and experts to the town of Snekkersten, north of here, for the three-day international conference sponsored by Denmark.
Russia, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Portugal will not attend either, organizers said.
Denmark purposely invited arms manufacturers, both private and governmental, to "get them to inform the international community on the development of de-mining technology," Nielson said in an article published in the Danish press.
"Is that why China has refused to attend this conference?" he asked. "You can only guess the reason."
A UN conference on "inhumane weapons" held in Geneva in early May produced an agreement to limit production and use of certain anti-personnel mines but stopped short of banning them.
The accord reduces the threat posed by mines, making them easier to detect and giving them a built-in self-destruct mechanism that would render them useless 120 days after they are laid.
The negotiations saw a clash of interests between Third World producers of anti-personnel mines such as China and Pakistan and the industrialised countries that already possess a range of sophisticated mines.
The land mine is "the weapon of the poor," said Danish Red Cross chief Frank Poulsen. "It costs just 10 to 20 kroner (1.70 to 3.40 dollars) to buy, but it costs from 2,000 to 6,000 kroner (340 to 1,020 dollars) to eliminate it."
Sixteen weapons manufacturers from eight countries as well as 18 international organizations including the United Nations' humanitarian aid section will attend this week's conference.
Nielson wrote: "We should do everything in our power to stop the propagation of these mines and to eliminate more quickly these weapons that kill and mutilate at least 25,000 people every year -- mostly civilians -- half of them children."
He added: "At the present pace and with the current methods, it would take more than 1,000 years to eliminate these mines, on condition that no new ones are laid. And the price of clearing them is estimated at around 200 billion kroner (34 billion dollars)."
Denmark, which has had some 10,000 mines strewn over its territory since World War II, "is committed to a total ban on the production and use of anti-personnel mines and decided in May to ban them in its own defense," Nielson said.
"By taking the lead in the fight against anti-personnel mines, we want to send a clear message to the international community in the hope that other countries will follow our example," he added.
The main aim of the conference is to "promote the development of a technology that can quickly and without risk help people in mined areas to locate the sites of these mines and avoid this menace burdening millions of individuals and the land resources they cultivate," Nielson said.
The problem is especially acute in Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Burma, Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Laos, Mozambique, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Vietnam.