KIEV, April 19 (RIA Novosti, Olga Bernatskaya) - The construction of a new sarcophagus above the Chernobyl reactor that blew up in 1986 will be completed in 2010, the Ukrainian president said Wednesday.

"Construction of a new sarcophagus as part of international aid will be fully completed in 2010 if the results of an open tender to implement this project are summed up in time," Viktor Yushchenko said at a conference.

He also said national and global health and rehabilitation programs should be drafted.

Yushchenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the condition of the nuclear power plant and rehabilitation possibilities for disaster survivors in a telephone conversation, the Ukrainian presidential press service said.

The explosion at the Chernobyl NPP in April 1986 spewed radioactive clouds not only across Western parts of the Soviet Union, but also some countries in northern and Western Europe.

About 135,000 people were evacuated from within an 18-mile zone, which has left the surrounding area looking like a ghost town to this day. Many people, however, stayed or have returned to live there, although radiation is still leaking from the site.

The catastrophe caused enormous economic damage to the former Soviet Union, and claimed the lives of many local people and clean-up workers.