Norilsk Nickel has announced that the sales volume of palladium will rise as a result of metal kept off the market during 2002.

The firm's head of market analysis and development said that metal had previously been held back in order to support prices, but it was now preparing to release the deposits.

'Our sales will be higher as some metal left over from 2002 was sold this year,' Anton Berlin told Reuters.

Mr Berlin also revealed that Norilsk planned to sell up to 80 per cent of its palladium under long-term contracts with end-users in 2004.

'We hope next year we will be able to sell 80 percent of the metal to end-users. We do not want 100 per cent to be sold that way as we need some reserve for short-term contracts and spot sales to provide stability to the market,' he said.

Meanwhile the firm also released details of plans to establish a joint venture between the government and Norilsk to trade pgms abroad, scheduled to begin in 2004.

The news marks a further step towards transparency on the part of the Russian pgm giant, accompanying the dismantling of legislation requiring that pgm data must remain a state secret.

The law is currently in the process of being repealed as the country and one of its major industrial movers target a profitable market.