A ministerial pledge that Britain will not become a dumping ground for the nuclear waste of other countries has been broken, the Guardian reports.

Some 10,000 cubic metres of foreign waste is being stored in Cumbria because it is too expensive to send back, the paper says.

And the government is set to change its policy and start charging for the storage of foreign waste.

Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker said the government move was "a disgrace".

"We have enough dangerous waste of our own without scooping in other countries'," he said.