(ANSA) - BELGRADE, FEB 20 - Poland has withdrawn from the "Ottawa Convention" prohibiting anti-personnel mines. "We made this decision today, along with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland, that have also withdrawn from the convention. It is solely to strengthen our deterrence and security. This was the rationale for the decision," Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told a press conference in Krakow following the E5 defence meeting. "We did not want to do it, but because Russia does not respect any convention or act of international law, we cannot be bound by conventions that limit our level of security," he explained. (ANSA).