environmental group Greenpeace has released a document revealing secret efforts by Russian officials to secure lucrative contracts to allow illegal dumping of nuclear wastes from Switzerland, Germany, Spain, South Korea and Taiwan in Russia.

The document, "Protocol of Intentions', is linked to another leaked document published by Greenpeace on January 12, 1999. It outlined negotiations held on September 17, 1998, between representatives of Swiss nuclear utilities and the Russian ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) and their commercial agents, Techsnabexport of Russia and Internexco of Germany.

In the protocol the Swiss utilities sought agreement to send some 2,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel to Russia for disposal. Deputy director of Minatom N Yegorov said that Russian law which bans dumping of foreign nuclear waste in the country would have to be amended accordingly. "But for this, special decisions will have to be taken on a governmental level,' added Yegorov.