Kursk sailors buried

A naval chief hailed the sailors killed on the Kursk as heroes who had prevented atomic disaster as Russia laid to rest the last of the bodies recovered from the submarine's wreck.

"We bid farewell today to heroes," Navy commander Vladimir Kuroyedov said.

"In sacrificing their lives, they saved hundreds of thousands of people in northwestern Russia and Scandinavia, preventing a possible atomic explosion of the reactor."

In fact, the factory that designed the Kursk says its reactors shut off automatically, suggesting the crew had little role in preventing a possible nuclear accident.

The Kursk's entire 118 crew was lost when the submarine sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000.