Cairo: Ambassador Hossam Zaki, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, revealed that Egypt's Foreign Minister, Ahmed Abul-Gheit, sent letters to his counterparts in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Australia and New Zealand to urge these countries to participate in financing the second phase of the national project for de-mining and development of the northwest coast and the desert hinterland, which is expected to begin early next year. Zaki pointed out the importance of the efforts by the Foreign Ministry in coordinating with the national committee which oversees de-mining and development of the northwest coast, which was heavily mined during World War II. Zaki also noted that there are currently 17 million mines remaining in the western desert, and he stressed the keenness of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to mobilize international support to deal with this problem and its negative consequences on development efforts in Egypt. Egypt had earlier announced its plans to solve this problem, and Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation has begun implementing the first phase of a project aimed at the modernization of demining devices along the country’s northern coast. The effort comes as land mines in Egypt’s western desert, left over from the carnage of World War II, continue to wreak havoc on the area. The Ministry of Social Solidarity is allocating around 43 million Egyptian pounds for victims of land mine blasts and families of persons killed as a result of the remaining mines. The sands of the northwest coast are home to approximately 17.5 million landmines, and the number of landmines in the Sinai and the eastern desert is roughly 5.5 million according to a statement by Faiza Abul-Naga, the Minister of International Cooperation. She also estimated the number of the victims of landmines in Egypt to be about 900 disabled or wounded. In Sinai, however, it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of landmines because the Israeli government is believed to have not revealed all the locations of the mines that were placed during the 1967 and 1973 wars. BM