"This is a routine meeting held before we (the Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO) decide on any project," said K. Krishnamurthy, spokesman for ISRO. "The core team made a presentation.

"Based on this meeting the scientists will prepare a project report that will go for approval to the government. Once the government approves the project it will take about five years for the mission," Krishnamurthy told AFP.

He said the total cost of the mission would be about seven billion rupees (146 million dollars), including 1.2 billion rupees for the launch rocket.

Critics have said cash-strapped India should not undertake a lunar mission, but instead restrict its space programmes to satellite launches and use its funds for social welfare.

They have also warned that undertaking a lunar mission could halt ISRO's other programmes.

K. Kasturirangan, chairman of the ISRO, earlier this year ruled out sending an astronaut on the maiden voyage and said a manned mission to outer space would divert resources from other important activities.

"We have our priorities," he said adding that the benifits of a manned mission to outer space would not be in commensurate with the costs.

The United States and the former Soviet Union are the only other nations to independently send a human into orbit.

China has already announced it could send a human into orbit in the second half of 2003.

SPACE.WIRE