MURMANSK (Russia), Oct 7: The delayed operation to raise the sunken Kursk submarine was finally ready to begin at midnight (2000 GMT) on Sunday after Russian navy chiefs said the final cables were in place to hoist the vessel from the Barents Sea bed.

“You could say that the operation has already begun because we have begun to tighten the cables,” said Vice Admiral Mikhail Motsak, head of Russia’s Northern Fleet.

But speaking to reporters just after 6:00 pm (1400 GMT), Motsak added that the salvage crew needed another six hours to jolt the crippled nuclear submarine free from silt on the seabed before the operation proper could go ahead.

“The divers have linked up all 26 cables and the operation to lift the Kursk can begin,” said Larissa van Seumeren, a spokeswoman for Mammoet-Smit, the Dutch contractors in charge of lifting the 20,000-tons vessel.

“We are currently applying a tension of 150 tons to the 26 cables” now attached to the hull.

“Tests will continue for a couple of hours and then the tension will be increased, and the raising operation itself will begin,” van Seumeren added.

Before that, however, rescue experts had to dig the 20,000- tons vessel out of an estimated two metres of silt by giving it a “shake” 108 metres under the icy Arctic water.

The shaking process could be accomplished by strapping a massive cable around the submarine, van Seumeren said earlier. The actual lifting operation is expected to last between 10 and 12 hours, officials said.

The steel cables, each weighing 22 tons, are attached to a barge, Giant-4, which is then due to tug the sub to dock on the Kola peninsula.

Although the Russian navy says risks are negligible, the presence of 18 torpedoes, 22 missiles and two nuclear reactors inside the sunken vessel has given environmentalist groups and experts serious reasons to worry.—AFP