The meeting brought together officials from the NIB, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Word Bank, the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO), the Commission in Brussels and Russia, NIB said.

"(The meeting) was a very significant step forward," said NIB Senior Vice President Oddvar Ronsen.

"(Now) for the first time we have set a partnership between the international financial institutions, bi-lateral financing institutions and the Russian Federation to accelerate implementation of significant environmental projects in Russia," he said.

The first projects in line to receive funding from the partnership are a waste-water treatment plant in St Petersburg and environmental investments in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the NIB, the Nordic countries' international lending institution, said in a statement.

The partnership would also consider funding for nuclear clean-up and nuclear waste management projects in the Northern Dimension Area, the NIB said.

A pledging meeting for an NDEP fund is planned by the European Commission and the EBRD for the last week of November in Brussels, the NIB said.

Ronsen said that the first funds for NDEP projects could be provided before the end of this year.

The EBRD-administered Fund would work to attract grant financing from the European Commission and a wider group of contributing countries and to channel funds into environmental projects identified by the NDEP Steering Group, the NIB said.

Finland and Sweden have spearheaded a "Northern Dimension" of the EU, to involve regions in northern Russia and the Baltic Sea region in environment and infrastructure projects to promote stability by bridging the gap in living standards between those areas and the West.

"It is important that the Russia Federation is involved in this because the owners of the projects will be institutions and municipalities in Russia," Ronsen said.

On a recent visit to Finland, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for real substance to be given to the Northern Dimension.