The Group of Eight countries will begin full-scale talks on an international financing scheme for Russia's disposal of weapons-grade plutonium as part of an effort to curb the global proliferation of nuclear weapons, government sources said Tuesday.
The sources said that the G8 nonproliferation experts' group, or NPEG, will meet in Tokyo in the middle of next month to discuss the issue for the first time since the G8 summit in Okinawa Prefecture in July.
NPEG consists of senior G8 government officials in charge of arms control and nonproliferation. Japan holds the rotating one-year G8 presidency until the end of this year.