World pledges 550 million for Chernobyl
Ukraine had hoped for 740 million euros from governments and international organisations at a conference in Kiev, marking 25 years since the world's worst nuclear accident.
Officials at the conference were optimistic more funds would still be found to make the Chernobyl site safe.
"This is what we have been able to raise through joint efforts - and we consider this figure preliminary - 550 million euros," Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said at the end of the pledging conference.
The world community has already put up a portion of the 1.39 bln euros for the total cost of building a new containment cover and facilities for storing radioactive waste from the reactor.
Though the sums pledged fell short of the 740 million euros still outstanding, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that when all the pledges were in, it was possible the conference's "very ambitious goal" would be achieved.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced $123 million in new funding to help make Chernobyl environmentally safe, on top of $240 million already committed by Washington.
New encasement
Ministers and officials from the Group of Eight industrial nations and the European Union took the lead at the conference, saying they were ready to fund a new giant encasement over the Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986, billowing radiation across Europe.
The plan is to build a 110-metre-high (360-foot) shell over Chernobyl's No 4 reactor, which blew up after a safety experiment went wrong.
Delegates also expressed solidarity with Tokyo's efforts to control the crisis at Fukushima.
Japan's ambassador told the gathering that "under the challenging circumstances" Tokyo would not be able to pledge additional funds to the Chernobyl effort.
Both Chernobyl and the Fukushima crises showed that "nuclear accidents respect no borders," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Yanukovich said the Soviet-era disaster at Chernobyl in 1986 had left Ukraine with a "deep wound which it will have to cope with for many years.
Barroso, describing the pledges as a "very good result", said the European Commission had committed itself to putting up 110 million euros. In all, the EU bloc was providing half the funds required for Chernobyl "shelter and safety" projects.
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development said it would commit 120 million euros and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said his country would provide 47 million euros.
Week of commemorations
The donors' conference launches a week of commemorations in Ukraine marking the Soviet-era explosion and fire.
A prevailing southeast wind carried a cloud of radioactivity over Belarus and Russia and into parts of northern Europe.
Chernobyl has remained the benchmark for nuclear accidents. On April 12 Japan raised the severity rating at its Fukushima plant to seven, the same level as that of Chernobyl.
Chernobyl's total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate. Yanukovich said on Tuesday: "As a consequence of the accident, millions of people suffered, thousands of them died." Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com forf ull version