"The world would be a better place if it were not using nuclear weapons-usable materials in commerce," he said.

Among 32 nations that possess at least one kilogram of weapons-usable nuclear materials, Australia was ranked as the most secure.

It also urged nations to stop increasing stocks of weapons-usable material and to make public their security regulations.

Russian research institutes, which have large amounts of weapons-usable material, are now cooperating with American nuclear labs to secure those stocks against theft or misuse.

Iraq must also turn over "all of its nuclear weapons-usable material" to the International Atomic Energy Agency "for custody and removal."

It all boils down to "mining" weapons-usable nuclear materials from irradiated fuel.

"Weapons-grade and weapons-usable nuclear materials have been stolen from some Russian institutes," the report said.

Russian atomic-energy officials are investigating three main sites from which they suspect diversions of weapons-usable nuclear materials of the kind recently seized in Germany, American nuclear experts said yesterday.

Nonproliferation and environmental experts say transporting weapons-usable nuclear material is an unnecessarily risky operation.

The Guidelines also recognised the need for physical protection measures in the transfer of sensitive facilities, technology and weapons-usable materials, and strengthened retransfer provisions.