Chernobyl to shut

Kiev - Ukrainian experts presented a plan to close Chernobyl nuclear power-plant by 2000. But President Leonid Kuchma complained that the West was trying to impose new conditions. Sergei Parashin, director of the station, said the plan depended on Western financing to build an alternative gas-fired power-station and rebuild the cracked concrete tomb encasing Chernobyl's fourth reactor, which exploded in 1986.

The cost could be less than the $4bn (£2.5bn) suggested by the government. Reuter