Former Soviet scientists who once developed biological weapons for use against military foes now are learning peaceful and commercial purposes for their skills.

The retraining program at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is part of an international effort to prevent the biowarfare scientists from marketing themselves to rogue nations or terrorists.

"It's an assistance program of sorts for their scientists and engineers," said Dr. Richard Weller, the lead scientific liaison between the researchers and the Department of Energy lab, operated by Battelle.

Not too many years ago, Dr. Vladimir Bugreyev was making deadly biological weapons in the secretive "closed city" of Stepnogorsk in the Kazakhstan region of the former USSR.

In October, he and three colleagues from among the 60,000 or more former biowarfare scientists from the Soviet 'Biopreparat'concluded weeks of work at PNNL. Another group is scheduled to arrive in February.

"The first level of engagement is scientist to scientist," Weller told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a story published Tuesday.

He recently visited the Kazakhstani scientists back home to help them in their shift toward developing biomedical research projects.

Weller said the goal is to help them identify practical and commercial applications for the work previously dedicated to weapons development.

Bugreyev, his wife and scientific partner, Nadezhda Bugreyeva, Ekaterina Nikitina and Vladimir Berezin are the most recent visitors to the lab in the program that began in 1997.

Projects with the Kazakhstani scientists include work on an experimental hepatitis C vaccine, based on a natural immunity-stimulating compound refined by Berezin, and an antifungal medication based on a strain of strep bacteria Nikitina isolated from soil.

Many of the health-oriented projects are based on accidental discoveries that can trace their roots back to research looking for new bioweapons or for antidotes.

The exchange of information also benefits the United States by providing new commercial opportunities and novel scientific approaches to problems.

The advantage that many former Soviet scientists have over their American colleagues is that most U.S. researchers are heavily dependent on high-tech equipment and materials, he said. Scientists in the former Soviet Union had less to work with and were forced to become more creative.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union, U.S. and former Soviet officials decided to work together to minimize the chances weapon-making skills might fall into the wrong hands, said Patricia Godoy-Kain, manager of PNNL's international biological weapons nonproliferation program.