The Biden administration will roll back a Trump-era policy that permitted the stockpiling and use of anti-personnel landmines, Washington's UN envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday.
Ms Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council that landmines too often kill innocent civilians and children and that the policy review showed that the US was "committed to doing even more in the days and months to come".
US President Joe Biden faced pressure from politicians and human rights groups to drop a policy introduced last January by former president Donald Trump's administration to permit anti-personnel landmines as long as they could be remotely deactivated.
"President Biden believes we need to curtail the use of landmines. Now, there has been some discussion of the previous administration's landmine policy this week," Ms Thomas-Greenfield told an online UN meeting.
"So let me speak plainly. President Biden has been clear that he intends to roll back this policy, and our administration has begun a policy review to do just that."
The US has spent more than $4 billion in more than 100 countries since 1993 to get rid of landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded bombs to make war zones safer for civilians, according to the US State Department.
"We're proud of our work to address preventable injuries and deaths from mines," Ms Thomas-Greenfield said.
"These projects are grounded in over two decades of bipartisan congressional support, and they create a freer, safer and more prosperous world."
The landmine policy review comes amid renewed criticism of the Trump-era policy shift, which last January flouted an international ban by permitting the use of anti-personnel landmines as long as they could be deactivated or had a self-destruct mechanism.
The UN has long campaigned against the use of landmines. The devices are banned in more than 160 countries and the Ottawa Convention has since 1997 set standards against their use.
"I call on those that have not yet acceded to the convention to do so without delay. Mine action means working on prevention, to end the threat at its source," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the council.
The US, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and the two Koreas have not signed the pact.
"Landmines, IEDs and explosive remnants of war represent the worst of humanity. But efforts to eradicate them reflect humanity at its best," Mr Guterres said.
"Let us today commit to intensify our efforts to rid the world of these inhumane threats."
