WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday touted a U.S. program that has helped Albania become the first nation to destroy its entire chemical weapons stockpile.

Last month, Albania finished destroying about 16 metric tons of blistering chemical agents. The United States spent about $50 million (€36.7 million) to help; the money was provided by a U.S. program that pays for the dismantling of Cold War-era weapons of mass destruction, said James Tegnelia, of the Defense Department's threat reduction agency.

He said Switzerland, Italy and Greece also helped in the destruction of the chemicals.

The U.S. Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program is credited with deactivating or destroying 6,982 nuclear warheads, 653 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles, 613 submarine-launched missiles, 30 nuclear submarines and other parts of the Soviet Union's nuclear program.