The Obama administration has decided not to sign an international convention that bans land mines.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that the administration recently completed a review and decided not to change the Bush-administration era policy.

"We decided that our land mine policy remains in effect," he said.

More than 150 countries have agreed to the Mine Ban Treaty's provisions to end the production, use, stockpiling and trade in mines. Besides the US, holdouts include: China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Russia. Human rights groups had expressed hope that the Obama administration would sign the treaty.

Stephen Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's arms division, said he was surprised by the announcement and called it disappointing. He said that his group had been pushing the administration to conduct a review of its policy, but the administration had given no indication that one was under way.

"If one was already completed, it was not very extensive," he said.

Mr Kelly said that the US would send an observer group of mine experts to a review conference on the treaty in Cartegena, Colombia, next week.

A report this month by the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines found that mines remain planted in more than 70 countries. It also said mines triggered by accident killed at least 1,266 people and wounded 3,891 last year.

More than 2.2 million anti-personnel mines, 250,000 anti-vehicle mines and 17 million other explosives left over from wars have been removed since 1999, the report said.