MOSCOW, April 30 (Itar-Tass) - Forty-one tonnes of the war gas lewisite have been neutralized at the Gorny plant in a Volga region.

The whole arsenal of chemical weapons will be destroyed in the settlement of Gorny by 2005 as is stipulated by Russia’s international obligations.

A spokesman at the regional information and analysis centre for safeguarding and destruction of chemical weapons told Itar-Tass on Friday that the Gorny plant would continue operation during the May holidays, as “technology for liquidation of lewisite does not envisage even brief stops of equipment”.

“The whole technological cycle is under control of international inspectors who together with Russian specialists also work on the weekend and holiday says.”

More than 1,000 tonnes of yperite, lewisite and their blends, which is 2.9 percent of Russia’s 40,000 tonne arsenal of war gases, was stored at Gorny.

All yperite was destroyed last year, and a only a line for lewisite disposal operates at present.