A global nuclear initiative from Moscow

As part of global non-proliferation efforts, Russia is planning to open an international centre offering nuclear fuel cycle services next year, which will be open to all nations of the world willing to develop civilian atomic energy, a top industry official said on Tuesday.

"The international centre will be opened in 2007 and we will be ready to create the conditions necessary for such a site by the end of this year," chief of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) Sergei Kiriyenko was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

Initially, Moscow had floated the idea of a nuclear fuel cycle centre for Iran to resolve the controversy over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons programme. Later in May last, Russian President Vladimir Putin had voiced the idea of the International Atomic Energy Agency-controlled

nuclear fuel centres on its soil for sustained supply to all countries developing atomic energy.

"Russia offers every country, desiring the peaceful development of atomic energy, to become a founder and stock-holder of the centre," Kiriyenko said, adding that any nation will receive guaranteed supplies of low enriched uranium besides the right to participate in administering this centre and receiving a share of its profit.

US President George W Bush also floated a similar programme and at the July summit in St Petersburg with Putin, the two countries signed a crucial deal allowing the export of US-origin spent fuel to Russia for recycling.