US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed a deal Monday to fight the smuggling of nuclear and radioactive materials, the State Department said.

The deal significantly boosts joint US-Armenian "efforts to combat the threat that nuclear or highly radioactive materials could be acquired by terrorists or others who would use them to harm us," it said in a statement.

The agreement spells out the US-Armenian intention to cooperate to boost Armenia's capabilities "to prevent, detect, and respond effectively to attempts to smuggle nuclear or radioactive materials," the department added.

"It specifies twenty-eight agreed steps that the two governments intend to be taken for this purpose."

The statement said Armenia will be able to take some of the steps on its own, but would receive either US or international assistance in implementing other measures, it said.

"This assistance would complement and be carefully coordinated with the aid the Republic of Armenia is already receiving from various US and international assistance programs," it added.

The State Department said the agreement is the fifth of its kind concluded by the US government's Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative, with previous ones completed with Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the Kyrgyz Republic.

"The US government intends to conclude similar agreements with approximately twenty additional countries where the risk of nuclear smuggling is of particular concern."