NANJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China has trained some 300 deminers, and instructed clearance of more than 200,000 square meters of minefield for foreign countries over 10 years, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    According to a press release from the ministry's Department of Arms Control, a humanitarian demining training course for Afghanistan and Iraq was concluded in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Monday.

    It said 38 people from Afghanistan and Iraq took the two-month course at the University of Science and Technology of the People's Liberation Army in Nanjing. As a result, they learned demining theories and practices and improved on-site instruction ability.

    China will also donate mine detection and demining equipment to the two countries after the training course, the release said.

    The course was a "concrete measure" of China in actively taking part in international humanitarian demining. China will continue to support the efforts of Afghanistan and Iraq to achieve national stability and development and assist the two countries' economic recovery and social reconstruction, the release said.

    In the past 10 years, China has made active contribution to international humanitarian demining by offering assistance to nearly 20 countries including Eritrea, Thailand and Bosnia and Herzegovina, it said.

    As of August 2008, one decade after the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force, more than 70 countries were still believed to be affected by mines, with over 25 nations contaminated by unexploded cluster bombs and submunitions.

    Joint efforts by the UN and its partners to clear mines has reduced the annual number of casualties to some 5,500, down 75 percent from a high of 26,000 in 1997.