Mr. Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance was given by Her Majesty'sGovernment to the Laotian Government for clearance of unexploded bombs in each of the last three years. [2971]Clare Short: We have not provided any bilateral support to the Laotian Government for the clearance of unexploded ordnance (UXO).However, we have contributed over £543,000 in 1995-96 through United Nations and British NGO programmes for UXO clearance andcommunity awareness activities in Xieng Khouang province and capacity building for the newly formed Lao National UXO Programme. In1996-97 we gave a further £148,000 to Xieng Khouang project.