G7 Hopes to Boost Yeltsin at Nuclear Summit

LONDON (Reuter) - A summit in Moscow this week will try to cut the risks of nuclear disaster a decade after Chernobyl but Western leaders hope it will also give Russian President Boris Yeltsin a boost in his struggle to keep power.

Yeltsin, who faces a tough fight against a resurgent Communist Party in June elections, plays host to leaders of the world's rich industrialized nations Friday and Saturday for a meeting on improving nuclear safety.

The Kremlin summit, to be chaired jointly by Yeltsin and French President Jacques Chirac, brings together the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) -- the United States, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain -- with Russia and Ukraine.

Although these are the countries who use most of the world's nuclear energy and have the biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons and material, diplomats say the summit has modest aims.

It will approve a program to combat the threat of nuclear smuggling, reinforce cooperation on the safety of nuclear reactors and materials and confirm an agreement to close down the Chernobyl plant by the year 2000.

Environmentalist groups and some scientists, who plan to hold their own summit in Moscow, say the meeting should go much further in providing for the closure of aging Soviet reactors, cutting stockpiles of nuclear materials and in other areas.

``The summit is to take stock of where we are on nuclear safety issues and provide some pointers for the future. It was never meant to agree radical measures or come up with more cash,'' said one senior Western official.

``Of course, we are hoping Yeltsin will benefit in his role as statesman. We all want reform to continue in Russia and we believe Yeltsin is the best chance for that.''

Yeltsin, who is also struggling to end the deeply unpopular war in Chechnya, wants Russia to be accepted fully into the group of indsutrialised economies as a great power.

Most G7 nations argue that Russia is not yet ready. But the Moscow summit, proposed by Yeltsin last year, marks a compromise on their part and recognition that he needs support.

Diplomats say Western powers are keen to ensure Russia and Ukraine join and then adhere to international conventions on safety, liability and waste dumping. They have criticized Russia privately for not providing more information on nuclear stocks.

The summit is expected to confirm a deal with Ukraine that involves closing the Chernobyl plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident 10 years ago, by the year 2000. The G7 has agreed to provide some $3 billion in aid for this.

G7 nations already have spent several billion dollars on improving reactor safety in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, and in making sure that former Soviet nuclear weapons are stored and dismantled safely.

But none of the aging Soviet-era reactors of the Chernobyl type has been closed since the accident. There are 15 of them operating, in Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine and they are considered dangerous by international standards.

Russia and other countries strapped for cash argue that they cannot afford to close down such vital power sources without more help and until proper alternatives have been found.

There will be an agreement on measures to tackle the growing problem of nuclear smuggling, including increased intelligence cooperation and suggestions for tighter control over materials from the former Soviet nuclear arsenal.

Western countries and Japan fear more nations or terrorist groups could acquire the bomb through smuggling of plutonium or highly-enriched uranium. But they cannot push the issue too far as Russia is highly sensitive about suggestions that it does not have full control over nuclear material.