Kazakhstan has lifted its ban on Russia using the Baikonur space station to launch the Proton rocket boosters.

Kazakhstan imposed the ban last October after a Proton crashed to earth, scattering debris over a wide area. The Kazakh authorities say the next scheduled launch will be this Saturday. Baikonur is the heart of the Russia space programme, and was built by the Soviets but now leased by Moscow from Kazakhstan.

Environmentalists have long complained of debris and spent fuel polluting the region.

Correspondents say such incidents touch a raw nerve in Kazakhstan which for decades saw itself as the dumping ground of the former Soviet Union.

It was on the Kazakh steppe that the Soviets tested hundreds of nuclear bombs.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service