Ukraine has worked out a five-year national plan on reducing the impact of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Kholosha said on January 11.

The plan, to be implemented from 2001 to 2005, contains priority measures to protect the health of the affected people, reinforce the anti-radiation facilities, reduce the radiation in the affected area, improving the social security there, and rebuild the local economy.

The plan will be funded jointly by the Ukrainian government and the international community, said the deputy minister.

The program, estimated to cost around seven million hryvnia (1.3 million US dollars) for 2000, replaces a previous five-year plan which will expire this year. A detailed version of the new plan is due in July.

On April 26, 1986, a reactor explosion at the Chernobyl power plant sent out waves of radiation that spread over 12 of Ukraine's26 states, covering an area of 50,000 square kilometers.

About 3.2 million Ukrainians, including one million children, were affected in the worst nuclear disaster in history. So far, 170,000 of them have died of radiation-related illnesses and 70,000 others have become disabled for life.

In November 1996, Ukraine closed one of the two working reactors at the Chernobyl power plant and in December that year it declared that the entire Chernobyl station would be closed by 2000.(Xinhua)