MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. The United States plans to open 18 biolaboratories outside the country, most of which will be located in Asia, to study especially dangerous viruses and bacteria, the chief of the Russian Armed Forces' radiation, chemical and biological protection force, Igor Kirillov, said on Friday.

"Over the past few years, the number of biolaboratories with maximum BSL-3-plus and BSL-4 biosafety levels has increased significantly in the United States. According to a report from King's College London, there are 25 active laboratories in the United States where research on highly dangerous viruses and bacteria is conducted. Another three are under construction. According to the report, 18 more BSL-4 laboratories are due to open in the next few years. Most of them will be located in Asian countries outside the national jurisdiction of the United States," he said during a news briefing on US military-biological activities.

In this regard, Kirillov stressed that Washington had intensified its military-biological activities in the post-Soviet space.

"On the pretext of accomplishing purely peaceful tasks in the states of Central Asia and the South Caucasus there are plans for selecting and genotyping samples of pathogens of especially dangerous infections endemic to these regions - plague, anthrax, and tularemia," he said.