US to remove all landmines from around its base in Cuba

The United States says it is removing all of its landmines from around the US naval base at Guantanamo, on the eastern tip of Cuba.

A Defence Department spokesman said the operation would include anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.

More than fifty-thousand devices are to be replaced by other security measures, including sound and motion sensors.

The mines were deployed in 1961, two years after the revolution which brought Fidel Castro to power.

The United States leases the base from Cuba under an agreement which pre-dates the revolution.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service