"Europe will fulfill its obligations [to the station] and we expect that as well from our partners this means the U.S. and other partners," German Research Minister Edelgard Buhlman said in a press conference Nov. 14 at the end of the ministers' first day of work. "We may block part of our budget, to give us time to react to decisions made in the U.S. early or in the middle of next year. We are confronted with a situation in the U.S."

Buhlman, who is presiding over the meeting, said ESA ministers were leaning toward freezing 60 percent of the investment they had planned to make in space-station utilization until the situation in the United States becomes clearer.

Facing a budget shortfall, NASA is weighing several options for continuing to build the station but at a slower pace and with far fewer astronauts and research possibilities than originally planned. A NASA advisory committee recently proposed that, to live within its budget ceiling, NASA limit the station to a crew of three, instead of seven, at least for the time being, and delay the launch of Europe's laboratory for a year.

ESA ministers in Edinburgh are due to decide whether to spend 965.9 million euros ($869.4 million) between 2002 and 2006 on space station exploitation. It is this budget line, and perhaps others, that will be partly frozen until NASA makes a decision on the station project.

Antonio Rodota, ESA's director-general, said during the press briefing that blocking payment on 60 percent of this planned spending would not endanger Europe's overall space station program. He said the funds could be unblocked late in 2002, once a final NASA decision has been made on how to proceed with the station.

NASA had no immediate comment on ESA's position.

"Before we make any comment on the specifics we should wait until after ESA completes is ministerial and reports its findings to the agency," said NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs.

The meeting wraps up Nov. 15.