Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich (C), Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon (L) and Jose Manuel Barroso (R), head of the European Commission, attend the Kiev Summit on Safe and Innovative Use of Nuclear Energy in Kiev April 19, 2011. The world community, spurred by the nuclear crisis in Japan, on Tuesday pledged 550 million euros (483 million pounds) extra cash to help build a new containment shell at the site of the 1986 Chernobyl accident. [Photo/Agencies]

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.

"Neither Ukraine nor the world community has the right to turn back from seeking answers to the questions which Chernobyl has presented us with," he added.

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.

The new structure will cover the present makeshift shelter that is now beginning to leak radioactivity from hundreds of tonnes of radioactive material inside.