NOVEMBER 07 2003

ITALIAN AID TO DESTROY RUSSIAN WEAPONS
6.11.2003. 08:46:02

Italy will grant 720 million euros ($A1.16 billion) to Russia to help it destroy its huge chemical weapons arsenal and safely dispose of Soviet-era nuclear submarines.

The deal was signed by the Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini and Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov during a visit to Rome by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Under the accord, a special facility will be built at Potchep in northwest Russia to destroy part of Russia's chemical weapons.

Russia has the world’s largest stockpile of chemical weapons, estimated at 40,0000 tonnes, but has vowed to destroy it by 2012.

The stocks of military plutonium and chemical weapons are seen as particularly vulnerable to theft in the corruption-tainted post-Soviet era, prompting leaders at the G-7 summit in Canada last year to offer up to $US20 billion ($A28 billion) in aid to dispose of them.

The agreement also includes the disposal of radioactive fuel from nuclear submarines.

The Russian atomic energy ministry says 192 Soviet-era and Russian submarines have been decommissioned since the 1980s, of which 89 have been dismantled. Of the 103 nuclear submarines still awaiting dismantlement, 76 still contain a nuclear reactor.