During his visit to Laos, Barack Obama is expected to announce more funding to help clear leftover bombs

One-third of the bombs failed to explore and across the country, more than 20,000 have been killed or injured by bombs since the war, many of them children

US planes used the country as a dumping ground for bombs when their original target was unavailable

During the Vietnam War, the US dropped more than 270 million bombs in


US bombs are still littering the fields of Laos more than 40 years since the end of the Vietnam War and their lethal legacy is a part of daily life in the landlocked nation.

As Barack Obama becomes the first president to visit the country, he is expected to announce more funding to help clear leftover US bombs and conduct Laos' first national survey on unexploded ordnance.

During the Vietnam War, the US dropped more than 270 million bombs in Laos.

The bombings were part of a CIA-run, secret operation aimed at destroying the North Vietnamese supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh trail and wiping out its communist allies.

They also left a trail of devastation in the country, which US planes used as a dumping ground for bombs when their original target was unavailable and planes could not land with explosives.

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Unexploded ordnance - dropped over Laos during the Vietnam war - is still injuring and killing its people (pictured: Toui Bounmy Sidavong, 43, holds a bomb in the village of Ban Napia in the Xieng Khouang province)

A technician from the NGO Mines Advisory Group holds a trigger before destroying unexploded bombs and ordnance found in a field

A courtyard is used as a deposit of bombs in Xieng Khouang dropped by the US Air Force planes during the Vietnam War

From 1964 to 1973, US warplanes dropped more than two million tons of ordnance on Laos, equivalent to a planeload of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years.

One-third of the bombs failed to explode and across the country, more than 20,000 people have been killed or injured by bombs since the war, many of them children.

According to Legacies of War, an organisation focused on addressing the impact of bombs dropped on Laos, $25 million a year will need to be spent over the next decade to prevent further casualties.

While overall casualties have come down - in 2008 recorded casualties were just over 300 compared to 42 in 2015 - the percentage of children hurt or killed has gone up.

Balasubramaniam Murali, deputy resident representative to the United Nations Development Programme in Laos, told Reuters: 'Children are curious and tend to play with the bombs or try to prise it open'.

During the Vietnam war, the US dropped more than 270 million cluster munitions over Laos. Many of these failed to detonate and remained on the ground as death traps

A man makes spoons by melting the bombs dropped by the US during the Vietnam War

Much of the landscape in the fields of Laos have been scarred or pocketed by the bombs dropped during the Vietnam War

More bombs were dropped on Laos than were unleashed on Japan and Germany, combined, during World War Two (pictured: a woman poses at an entrance of her house next to bombs dropped during the conflict)

Despite tens of millions of dollars spent, only one per cent of Laos territory has been completely cleared so far.

In Xieng Khouang, the most affected province, bombs are found in forests and school buildings, roads and rice fields.

For survivors of the war, the painful memories are still vivid.

Now 40 years old, Soud was 10 when, out farming with his family, his spade hit a bomb triggering an explosion that blinded and maimed him.

His mother, Thongsy, now 75, remembers the day clearly.

She said: 'I heard an explosion and then I saw my child lying there. The villagers helped carry him to the nearest hospital by foot. They had to cut off his hand. I was crying'.

Pomee Kaewpimpa, 59, was a young boy when he saw bombs dropped on Napia village in Xieng Khouang up to three times a day.

Now a village elder, he wants Washington to take responsibility.

He said: 'Until every bomb is removed from the ground our children will be at risk. I want to know whether those Americans who pierced our land with bombs, are they sorry?'

A technician from the NGO Mines Advisory Group pauses in a field while searching for unexploded bombs

The technician resumes the search for the unexploded devices at Phaxay district in Xieng Khouang province

Yianyang Bounxieng, now 28, remembers playing with bombs while growing up in Xieng Khouang, the area most heavily bombed during the war.

His grandmother resented foreigners because of the bombings.

He said 'When I took tourists to visit her she was angry and would say: 'Why did you bring them here? They destroyed everything''.

The country was dragged into the conflict in 1953 when the Vietnamese-backed communist forces Pathet Lao began fighting for leadership, aiming to oust the Royal Lao Government.

In response, America trained up around 30,000 Laotian tribesmen, mostly from the Hmong tribe, to fight against the communists.

One-third of the bombs failed to explore and across the country, more than 20,000 people have been killed or injured by bombs since the war, many of them children (pictured: a man poses next to two bombs)

A bomb dropped by the planes during the Vietnam War is used to grow plants in the village of Ban Napia

One of the bombs dropped is used for a decoration on a hotel in the Xieng Khouang province in Laos

While in Laos, Obama will meet with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders and an East Asia Summit.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has warned Obama not to question him about extrajudicial killings, or 'son of a bitch I will swear at you' when they meet in Laos during a regional summit.

Before flying to Laos, Duterte said he is a leader of a sovereign country and answerable only to the Filipino people.

More than 2,000 suspected drug pushers and users have been killed since he launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30.

Asked about that at the G20 summit in China, Obama described Duterte as a 'colorful guy'.

He said he had instructed his aides to assess whether it is still possible for the two leaders to have a constructive meeting in Laos.