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Russia puts safety first over Kursk submarine

MOSCOW, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Russia said on Sunday the final docking of the ill-fated Kursk submarine may take another two weeks because of the need for safety over the wrecked nuclear craft.

The 18,000-tonne Kursk, one of Russia's most modern submarines, plunged to the bottom of the Barents Sea more than a year ago when two as yet unexplained explosions ripped open its torpedo bay. All 118 crew were killed.

Dutch salvage contractor Mammoet last week completed the painstaking operation of plucking the stricken submarine from the seabed before towing it 100 km (60 miles) towards its docking.

NTV television quoted the commander of Russia's Northern Fleet, Vyacheslav Popov, as saying it could take a futher two weeks to complete the docking operation, and Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said time was no longer a deciding factor.

"Today the time factor does not exist. Security measures are the main thing for this work, because the operation to dock the wreck is unique," Yastrzhembsky said.

NTV said Mammoet and Russian officials had agreed to limit work to daylight hours for the remainder of the operation for safety reasons.

President Vladimir Putin was fiercely criticised at the time of the disaster by public and media alike for failing to break off a Black Sea holiday.

He subsequently promised the crew's angry relatives he would raise the wreck and hand them the bodies for burial.

Putin has also said he wants experts to examine the craft for clues as to what might have triggered the deadly blasts. But investigators say that any evidence is most likely in the Kursk's mangled bow which was left on the seabed.

The Kursk is now attached under a giant barge moored near the northern Russian town of Roslyakovo. The next stage is to hoist it into a half-submerged floating dock.

The floating dock will then finally bring the Kursk into daylight after 14 months under water.

Once in dry dock in Roslyakovo, outside Russia's Arctic port of Murmansk, the submarine will be examined by investigators and forensic experts. It will be stripped of its arsenal of missiles and sealed.

Afterwards the Kursk will be towed to the nearby town of Snezhnogorsk, where nuclear fuel will be extracted from its reactors and its remains fully dismantled.