It is common for singers and musicians to support national and international causes like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, UNICEF and Greenpeace.

Jackson Browne, who performed last night for a sold-out audience at Centennial Hall, has long been a fan of the work of Operation USA, an national and international disaster and relief organization.

Following the concert, Browne hosted a private backstage reception to benefit the West Hollywood agency's worldwide demining effort. Fans and supporters of Operation USA paid $125 for a chance to talk candidly with Browne about his involvement.

Operation USA collected a total donation of $9,200, which will directly benefit land-mine clearance in Cambodia. Browne says he has worked together with the organization a number of times and has always been pleased with the results.

"They are able to be really effective, especially in situations where no one else has been able to do anything," Browne said. "They have also been effective in situations where millions of people are scrambling trying to do something and they don't know how."

Browne's donation is intended to help fund the organization's current project of enlisting NASA to develop methods that can be used to prevent the killing and maiming of 27,000 people - half of whom are children - by land mines, says Richard Walden, founder and president of Operation USA. Walden says the technology already exists, but has to be re-engineered.

Operation USA got involved with national and international disasters 16 years ago at its inception. So far, it has donated $115 million to 64 countries including the United States. Some of their work includes delivering famine relief to Ethiopia in 1984 and aiding war refugees stranded in the Jordanian desert after fleeing Kuwait in 1990.

Now the organization has turned its focus to land mines, working with NASA to introduce space technology to demining, Walden says.

Land mines are the by-products of wars and are often planted in fertile farm areas in countries like Bosnia, Cambodia, Somalia and Vietnam, says Carol Manley, development director for Operation USA.

Long after wars cease, the threat of about 120,000 mines in 60 countries continues to linger, posing lifelong hazards to their inhabitants, Walden says.

"About 300 to 400 people are blown up each year," he says.

Land mines are comprised mostly of plastic, Walden says. The only metal they contain measures closely to the tip of a ball-point pen., so their composition makes it nearly impossible for them to traced with metal detectors.

For this reason, Operation USA is collaborating with NASA to unearth existing technology that can replace current methods of detonating mines. Walden says NASA had never before been approached with the task.

As a result, NASA has used its "Robotic Roundtable Demining Task Force," a schedule of regular meetings in an attempt to solve the demining challenge, Walden says.

While land mines are simply sown into the ground with shovels, they require dangerous and exceedingly tedious work to remove.

One method is for local soldiers to crawl on their bellies and use bamboo sticks to detonate mines in their paths, Walden says. They must puncture the ground 550 times a square meter and apply about 10 pounds of pressure in order to set off the mines.

Walden anticipates that NASA, with its consortia of government, academia and military personnel, will produce methods, possibly within the next year, that will aid in the quick and efficient removal of mines.

These techniques include manufacturing robots that rove the land and remote-controlled helicopters that can detect mines with their noses.

Testing will be conducted in Cambodia following the establishment of efficient demining methods, Walden says. The resulting information will be classified, so that all countries can have access to it.

Until then, Operation USA will continue its campaigns to raise money for humanitarian causes.

"When he (Browne) comes back from tour, we hope we can do a benefit in Los Angeles," Walden says.