Russia to destroy chemical weapons by 2012

MOSCOW, July 22 (UPI) -- The Russian government has approved a draft program to eliminate the country's 40,000 tons of chemical weapons by 2012.

The plan calls for destroying 20 percent of the chemical weapons by 2007 and an additional 45 percent in 2009, Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said at a Thursday government meeting, Interfax news agency reported.

Russia has completed one chemical dismantling plant in the Saratov region in central Russia and six more chemical weapons' disarming plants are scheduled to be commissioned in 2005-2009, the Moscow News reported Friday.