Many of these mines, buried in or around nations that have experienced conflicts, have not detonated and may date back to the time of the First World War.

Presently, 26,000 civilians (many of whom are children) are killed or permanently maimed each year when they step on a variety of these forgotten mines. Only three weeks before her death in Paris, Diana made a dangerous trek into Bosnia where she met with people whose limbs had been severed, crossing into an area reputed to be heavily infested with mines in the wake of recent warring.

While other nations hope for an outright ban on the mines, a number of significant changes are being demanded by the U.S. representative who has been meeting during the past week with foreign delegations negotiating in Oslo, Norway.

"If we go on a slippery slope of exclusions and loopholes," said the Dutch representative in rebuke to the American position, "we have to ask what we are even doing here." The representative said that those who do insist upon such loopholes are "deaf to reality."

The Netherlands was echoed by Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister, who, as he took the podium, said, "We look forward to hectic days and nights of debate with the United States delegation, but we cannot yield on a total and absolute ban."

Only Japan and Australia have supported segments of the American position, a position which says it desperately needs the security provided by land mines for its military forces. The U.S. is therefore requesting a nine-year delay before it will be required to comply with principal aspects of the treaty.

The treaty, proposed by Austria, would ban all storage, production, use, or exports of antipersonnel land mines. Each nation signing would be required to destroy its current stockpiles.

The United States is among those major nations--including Russia and China--that scorn the proposed ban. Russia and China, unlike the United States, are not participants in the Oslo negotiations, however.

The American representative, Eric Newsome, pleaded, "Antipersonnel mines are woven throughout our defense structure, our defense doctrine, our weapons systems and our planning."

Addressing the conference, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, told negotiators and the media that he favored a total mine ban.

Among other exclusions and loopholes sought by the U.S., the mining of borderlands between North and South Korea are used as examples of "necessity".

Other demands include allowance of clusters of antipersonnel and antitank mines that eventually self-destruct.