The 17 countries, which possess a total of 20 Soviet-era nuclear reactors, have all agreed to participate in the GTRI.

The initiative, launched by the United States in 2004, aims to identify, secure and remove US and Russian nuclear materials located in other countries around the world, in order to avoid their falling into the hands of terrorists.

Russia's first operation was completed in secret in April, when 63 kilograms (140 pounds) of uranium -- enough to make two and a half nuclear bombs -- were secretly removed from Uzbekistan, according to Valeri Govorukhin, deputy director-general of Technsabexport, which deals with exports of products and services produced by the Russian federal atomic energy agency (Rosatom).

"The Uzbek reactor was only 37 kilometres (23 miles) from Afghanistan," where US-led forces are battling Islamist extremists, Govorukhin noted.

"The operation was paid for by the United States and cost around seven million dollars (5.5 million euros), a third of which went on environmental protection," he said.

The uranium arrived at the Mayak storage facility near Chelyabinsk in the south of Russia's Urals region after 16 days' journey, under high surveillance, from a research reactor 30 kilometres from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

The next two countries from which Russia plans to remove fissile material are Latvia and the Czech Republic.

"We plan to finish the programme of repatriating enriched uranium by 2013," Govorukhin confirmed.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agancy (IAEA), more than 100 research reactors around the world are using highly enriched uranium that could be used for terrorist purposes.

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