The measures, which have to pass two more readings and be signed by President Viktor Yushchenko to enter into force, provide large discounts on the public utility bills of those worst hit by the 1986 accident.

Included are people who lived closest to the nuclear power plant when one of its reactors exploded in 1986, those who participated in containment operations and family members.

The bills also increase the amount of pensions to those disabled by the disaster and rescue workers.

Chernobyl's number-four reactor, in what was then the Soviet Union and is now Ukraine, exploded on April 26, 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe and becoming the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster.

Following the accident, a concrete sarcophagus was built over the stricken reactor and a new 20,000-tonne steel case to cover the whole plant is planned on being constructed between 2008 and 2009.

The power station was eventually shut down on December 15, 2000.

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