国际英语新闻：Russia claims elimination of half stocks of chemical weapons

MOSCOW, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Nearly half of Russia's stockpiles of chemical weapons have been eliminated by Sept.1, Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Tuesday.

At a meeting of the Federation Council committee on defense and security, the ministry's official Viktor Kholstov presented a government report on the progress of the chemical weapon elimination, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

The destruction work was done in a facility in the village of Gorny, the Saratov Region, and another facility in the town of Kambarka, Kholstov said.

A total of 19,300 tons of chemical weapons, 48.3 percent of the nation's whole stock, were destroyed, the official said.

Russia is preparing to commission two more facilities for eliminating chemical weapons, the official added.

According to the international convention on the prohibition of chemical weapons, effective since April 29, 1997, each party must eliminate its chemical weapon stocks before April 29, 2012.

Russian government admitted earlier that the elimination work might not be finished on time due to the lack of fund. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in this May ordered the government to complete the work by April 29, 2015.