The army in Colombia says there are more than one-hundred-thousand land mines planted in the country.

In a report compiled with the United Nations, the army said around fifteen percent of Colombia's territory had mined areas.

It said that in 1998, at least one-hundred people had been killed by land mines -- fifty-five of them soldiers.

The Colombian army also said it had stopped producing and using land mines to protect its bases since last year, under the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines which comes into force today.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service