Around 1,500 demonstrators, including farmers with tractors, blocked roads as authorities loaded the cargo on lorries for the 20-kilometre (12-mile) trip to a storage facility in Gorleben, northern Germany.

By evening, seven of the 11 containers had been transferred from the train. Authorities said they hoped to have the operation completed by around midnight (2300 GMT).

Police were expected to clear the approach roads to Gorleben, a temporary storage site, before the convoy of lorries departs.

After a dramatic day of cat-and-mouse on Sunday, during which some protesters fought pitched battles with baton-wielding police, the nuclear train finally crawled into Dannenberg early Monday under heavy security.

Shipments of radioactive waste to Gorleben regularly attract protests, but this year they have been particularly strong, fired up by fury at Chancellor Angela Merkel's aim to postpone when Germany abandons nuclear power.

Activists hailed the frequent stoppages as a success for their cause. "Practically everything got delayed ... in the end, it was about sending a signal," one female protester told AFP.

"Not only is the shipment blocked, so are the government's plans," said Luise Neumann-Cosel, a spokeswoman for protest group X-Tausendmalquer.

"We are sending out a signal to the government that we cannot be ignored."

During the 67-hour journey from France, the activists did everything in their power to delay the train, including sit-ins on the line, removing stones supporting the tracks and abseiling from bridges into the train's path.

Protest group Castor Schottern said two demonstrators were seriously injured in clashes with police on Sunday. Twenty-nine had head cuts, three people had concussion and there were 16 broken fingers, it said.

The group said its supporters had suffered around 1,000 injuries in all, mainly to the eyes as police deployed pepper spray and tear gas.

Around 20,000 police were mobilised for this shipment, the 12th, the head of the DPolG police union Rainer Wendt said. The police operation has cost around 50 million euros (70 million dollars), authorities said.

The GdP, another police union, said that officers had used up their "final resources" dealing with the protests so far.

As if police didn't have enough to contend with, around 2,000 sheep and 50 goats were let loose onto one of the roads leading up to Gorleben, according to a spokeswoman for activist group Citizens' Initiative Luechow-Dannenberg.

"The animals just wanted to join in a bit," she said.

Germany, in common with other European countries, has no permanent storage site for radioactive waste. The European Commission last week moved to press member states to solve the problem.

Gorleben, a former salt mine, is one of two main "intermediary" storage sites for highly radioactive nuclear materials, and government experts are continuing to assess whether it is suitable as a permanent site.

Merkel wants to extend the lifetime of Germany's 17 reactors by up to 14 years beyond a scheduled shutdown of around 2020 as a "bridge" until renewable sources like solar and wind power produce more electricity.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Berlin in September against the extension, and protesters have warned of more to come.

Sigmar Gabriel, head of the opposition Social Democrats, said the government had re-opened a "big conflict in society."

earlier related report
Police in Germany try to free blocked nuclear waste train
Dannenberg, Germany (AFP) Nov 8, 2010 - German police Monday began dispersing activists who succeeded in peacefully blocking a train carrying nuclear waste from France to Germany after earlier protests erupted in violence.

Fruitless negotiations took place with the activists before police began to remove them from railway tracks at Harlingen in northern Germany in the small hours of Monday, a police spokesman told AFP.

Thousands of activists invaded the tracks at Harlingen which is about 15 kilometres (10 miles) from Dannenberg, the final destination for the train before the waste is loaded onto trucks and taken to a storage facility.

Protests against the convoy had erupted in violence Sunday as police wielding batons charged around 1,000 activists trying to halt the cargo's progress.

Police moved in with batons and water cannon after the demonstrators attacked them, a spokeswoman said.

"I can confirm there were arrests and people injured but I am not able to say how many," another police spokesman said.

He added the activists appeared to be "members of the anarchist scene, who threw flares and fired tear gas at police."

The operation to clear the tracks looked like being a long one with between 3,000 and 5,000 people sitting on and near the tracks and police having to dislodge them one by one in sub-zero temperatures.

A spokesman for the Lower Saxony police union told AFP that he expected the 14-wagon train to remain where it was until dawn.

Both protesters and police were injured in Sunday's clashes, another police spokesman said in the northwestern German town of Lueneburg.

"There were wounded on the side of the protesters as well as among the police but I cannot say how many," the spokesman said.

The new clashes followed earlier altercations between police and protesters during which authorities deployed pepper spray, tear gas and water cannon to disperse some 250 anti-nuclear activists trying to sabotage the tracks.

Head of the German Police Union, Konrad Freiberg, told a regional newspaper the protests had reached "a new level of violence."

The 123 tonnes of nuclear waste, dubbed by activists "the most radioactive ever", are be loaded onto lorries at Dannenberg for transfer to the nearby storage facility of Gorleben, in central Germany.

The train is returning German nuclear waste that was treated in France by the Areva group but activists say the Gorleben facility is not fit for storage.

Activists were doing everything in their power to slow the progress of the train, which environmental group Greenpeace has called to be halted immediately "in the interests of public safety."

The head of one group of protesters called for calm while placing the blame for the escalating violence squarely on authorities.

"We do not want a debate about violence. We want a debate about nuclear power, yes or no," said Wolfgang Ehmke from the group "citizens' initiative Luechow-Dannenberg.

Germany's anti-nuclear campaigners have been outraged by a vote in parliament to extend the life of the country's 17 nuclear reactors which previously were meant to come offline in 2020.

Opinion polls show that most Germans oppose parliament's decision.

The last time the convoy took place, in 2008, the waste shipment was halted for around 14 hours amid a violent struggle between police and protesters.

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