Berlin - German and French government officials have decided to cancel next year's annual transport by rail of highly radioactive nuclear waste, a German newspaper reported Tuesday on the basis of information from government sources.

The transports, with the waste held in "Castor" containers, have regularly drawn protests from environmental and anti-nuclear activists in the past.

The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said licensing of the new-style Castors was behind the delay.

The annual transports run from the French reprocessing facility at La Hague on the Normandy coast to Gorleben in the German state of Lower Saxony.

The 2009 transport was to have comprised 11 Castor containers to add to the 80 already in Gorleben.

In 2004, a man was killed in France when he lay on the track and the nuclear train was unable to stop in time. (dpa)