TEHRAN Russia's Lower House of Parliament on Wednesday approved in its third and final reading a controversial bill allowing for the import and storage of nuclear waste from abroad.

The measure, which has been backed by President Vladimir Putin's administration, was adopted by a 243 to 125 vote, with seven deputies in the state Duma Lower House of Parliament abstaining.

The measure must still be passed by the Federation Council Upper Chamber before reaching Putin's desk for his signature.

Russia's Parliament was set Wednesday to approve in the third and final reading a controversial bill that critics warn will turn the country into the world's nuclear waste bin while handing a windfall to the government.

In April, the state Duma Lower House of Parliament passed the second reading of the bill amending existing legislation to allow Russia to import and store on a "temporary" basis nuclear waste from abroad.

The legislation however provides no definition of how long the waste can be stored.

The government argues that the project could earn Russia some 21 billion dollars over the next 10 years, and the bill is expected to easily sail through the pro-Kremlin Chamber Wednesday.

However environmental activists protested angrily during the earlier reading, some chaining themselves to the Duma's entrance in a bid to prevent lawmakers from reaching the chamber. Several demonstrators were detained by police.

Ahead of Wednesday's hearing, academics from Russia's Academy of Science urged President Vladimir Putin to veto the law should it pass through both houses of Parliament, arguing that waste storage was a danger to the population.

"In case of massive (nuclear byproduct) introduction, the inevitable side-effects would endanger the life of Russia's residents for hundreds of years," they said in a letter, which was also distributed in the Duma.

The letter further warned of "catastrophic ecological consequences from these projects."

Current legislation forbids Russia from importing nuclear waste materials from abroad.

A recent report said that Russia had already accumulated 14,000 tonnes of high-grade nuclear waste from its own reactors and weaponry.

Opinion polls also suggest that a majority of Russians oppose the bill, but the Atomic Energy Ministry has pointed to the huge potential earnings to be made from importing other countries' nuclear waste.

According to the draft bill, some 70 percent of proceeds from the project would be handed to the Atomic Energy Ministry for upgrading Russia's existing reactors and other safety programs.

Only liberals in the Yabloko faction of Grigory Yavlinsky, and some members of the union of rightist forces, publicly oppose the reform in the Duma.

Russia's New Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev, appointed by President Vladimir Putin in an March reshuffle that saw his predecessor Yevgeny Adamov sacked amid a wave of corruption allegations, has pledged to guarantee the safety of the nuclear waste plan.

"We will not allow Russia to turn into a nuclear waste dump," Rumyantsev said before the second reading in April.

The Atomic Energy Ministry says the law would enable Russia to sign contracts to reprocess 20,000 tonnes of waste with China, Germany, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan, earning 21 billion dollars (24 billion euros) over the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, a Russian military ship on Wednesday spilled up to 15 tonnes of gaz oil, creating a 1.5 kilometre-long slick off the island of Sakhalin in far eastern Russia, Russia's Emergencies Ministry said.

It said the spill took place overnight Tuesday to Wednesday when a pipe of the ship belonging to the Pacific fleet broke.

Another of the fleet's ships is currently at the scene of the accident to the south of Sakhalin, in a bid to clean up the layer of gasoil. Russian experts are then expected at the scene to assess the environmental damage.

Meanwhile, Russia said on Wednesday it would soon return 22 batches of pre-World War II archives to the Netherlands, the ITAR-TASS agency said.

The Russian government made the announcement on the second day of a state visit by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, the first such visit in the history of relations between the two countries.

According to the statement the hand over involved a "large quantity of documents, concerning different Dutch organizations." It said the organizations included the Secretariat of the International Socialist, the order of Jesuits, rotary clubs and young Catholics' organizations.

The archives were discovered in a depot belonging to the Gestapo, Hitler's police, in upper Silesia and taken to the then Soviet Union along with German archives seized in the same place.

They are currently being held in Russia's military archives.