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According to The Irish Times, a new agreement with the Belarusian authorities permitting children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to stay with host families in Ireland was signed in Minsk yesterday.

In an interview BelaPAN, the activist said that he had been pushing for a meeting with the lawmaker for a long time but all of his petitions had been unanswered.

Feb 11, 2009 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) -- [Presenter] There are no problems as far as funding for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is concerned, despite the economic crisis, and there is no threat to radiation security, Emergencies Minister Volodymyr Shandra told a briefing today.

Lancaster University is helping to carry out a government-funded project that will help the town of Slavutych in the Ukraine to advance technologically. Slavutych was built to house residents of Chernobyl who were evacuated after the nuclear disaster on 1986. However, the town's economic growth has been hindered by a lack of technological infrastructure.

The FINANCIAL -- The EBRD, the Government of Ukraine and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant have signed a grant agreement under which the Bank will provide €135 million from its own resources to the international efforts to transform the plant into a safe and secure site.

Ukraine will complete dismantlement of the Chernobyl nuclear atomic power plant till 2065. It has become known due to the bill on the federal program directed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant removal from the service, enacted by the President of Ukraine. The preparation step to remove from the service will complete no sooner than in 2013.

Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko has approved the programme of a gradual dismantle of the Chernobyl atomic power plant. According to the plan it will take over 50 years to make the Chernobyl an ecologically safe place, clean of radioactive contamination.

The one-on-one meeting of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko has continued for more than three hours already. The negotiations are focused on the development of the trade and economic cooperation between the two countries and the preservation of the positive changes. Cooperation in power engineering and border affairs is also discussed.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has signed the law “Social protection of citizens affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe, other radiation emergencies”, the press service of the head of state told BelTA.

On December 15 Dutch politicians demanded the government of the Netherlands to take action against Belarusian officials including Alyaksandr Lukashenka. It has been stated in connection with the fact that the Belarusian officials prevent children from regions affected by Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster to go abroad for Christmas holidays.