Vienna, Dec 14 (IANS): The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will send permanent technical missions to all the nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Ukraine as part of stepped-up efforts to help prevent a nuclear accident amid Russia's ongoing war against Kiev.

This was agreed upon during a meeting in Paris on Tuesday between IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Grossi and Shmyhal also made progress in ongoing discussions about setting up a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), where the had IAEA deployed a permanent expert mission more than three months ago, the UN nuclear watchdog said in a statement.

"While we are not yet there and more work is required, I'm increasingly optimistic that such a zone, which is of paramount importance, will be agreed and implemented in the near future," the Director General was quoted as saying after the meeting.

"I will continue my high-level consultations in the coming days, both with Ukraine and Russia, with the clear aim to get this done as soon as possible. We can't afford to lose more time."

At the request of Ukraine, the IAEA has over the past month dispatched week-long nuclear safety and security missions to the three other operational NPPs in Ukraine -- Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine -- as well as to Chernobyl, site of the 1986 nuclear accident.