The Japanese government plans to step up efforts to discourage scientists engaged in weapons development in the former Soviet Union from being employed by so-called rogue states, government sources said Sunday.

The government will call on private-sector companies to join its initiative against the proliferation of weapons technology, beginning in the next fiscal year from April 1, the sources said.

Seminars and other events will be held to promote what it calls "partner programs," where private-sector firms and research institutes would invest in projects that make use of advanced military technology known to former Soviet scientists, the sources said.

Japan participated in the "cooperative threat reduction" (CTR) initiative -- the aim of which was to prevent the spread of weapons technology from the former Soviet Union to rogue states -- even before the terrorist attacks on the United States.

But the events of Sept. 11 have heightened concerns, the sources said.

As part of the CTR initiative, Japan, the United States, Russia and the European Union set up the International Science and Technology Center in Moscow in 1992. Tokyo has so far disbursed $52 million for support projects selected from among 200 applications filed each year by the ISTC.

Beginning in April, the government will also establish clear-cut guidelines and listen to views from a broad range of experts in screening projects filed by the ISTC.

The ISTC has offered support to more than 1,200 projects involving around 36,000 researchers. They include developing a pollution-free incineration method using rocket technology, and research into measles vaccination by an institute that used to develop biological weapons.

According to a recent survey by Russian researchers, more than three out of five employees working in five nuclear weapons facilities in Russia were earning less than $50 per month.