VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Weeks after the theft of radioactive material from a nuclear submarine, military prosecutors in the remote Kamchatka region have admitted the theft and added that theft of army equipment is an increasingly serious problem.

The Pacific Fleet counterespionage division kept the theft secret until last week, and only under pressure from reporters have the details of the theft become known.

"At first, they [the military] said it was a decommissioned submarine," Igor Kravchuk, a reporter from Kamchatka's Vesti newspaper, said in a telephone interview. "Only later did they admit it was still an active ship, which will be decommissioned later."