BEIRUT The Lebanese Army has dismantled some 6,000 land mines and explosives in South Lebanon since Israel's pullout from the area in May 2000, Lebanon's National Demining Office said in a statement.

The army has removed 3,667 anti-personnel mines, 1182 anti-tank mines, 36 bombs, 623 unexploded shells, 12 rockets and dozens of cases of ammunition, the office said.

Ten Lebanese soldiers, including two officers, and two Syrian soldiers have been injured from blasts during the mine-clearing operations.

But even this makes barely a dent in the estimated 130,000 mines and unexploded shells left in the southern region at the close of Israel's 22-year occupation.

The Lebanese Army's operations covered just 114,842 square meters (1,235,699 square feet), the office said.

Several countries, including the United States, Italy, Sweden, Ukraine and Britain, have donated funds or equipment to the mine-clearing efforts, with the United Arab Emirates handing over a donation of 50 million dollars, the largest so far.

Brigadier Georges Sawaya, head of Lebanon's demining office, said on May 22 that it was hoped to have all mines cleared by May 2006.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative in South Lebanon, Staffan de Mistura, said meanwhile that "if it is accelerated ... we hope it will be complete in four years."

De Mistura added that the mines claim at least one victim per week in the South, which counts some 70,000 inhabitants, and scare people from returning to their homes abandoned during the Israeli occupation.

UN peacekeepers, who complain that Israel has not been forthcoming with maps of the mines, say they have removed more than 3,200 mines and explosives.

According to an AFP count, 13 Lebanese civilians have been killed and more than 70 others injured or maimed by mines and other explosive devices in the area since the withdrawal.