A team of Russian delegates is to visit Swindon and learn by example from its environmental successes.

Six senior officials from Omsk in Siberia will study the town's environmental record and its Local Agenda 21 projects during the one-day visit tomorrow.

The delegation's arrival comes at the end of a 10-day UK study tour.

Funded by the British Council and the Government's Department for International Development, the tour is intended to help Omsk's mayor's office and ecological committee.

The Local Agenda 21 project is Swindon's contribution to a worldwide drive towards greener living, with the emphasis on issues such as recycling and environmentally- friendly fuels.

Swindon Council's senior economic development officer, Daryl Jones, said: "Omsk has a population of about 1.4million, and all the problems associated with the transition of the Soviet economy.

"It's a heavily-polluted major industrial centre where low water quality, polluted land and flooding lead to serious health difficulties."