"If a decision is made to reduce NASA's involvement in the ISS, Russia will have to initiate a revision of an intergovernmental agreement between the signatories to the project that regulates the station's construction," Gorbunov said, adding that this issue should be discussed at one of the next meetings between the heads of national space agencies.

Beginning in 2002, ISS crews should consist of seven people, among them three Russian cosmonauts, three U.S. astronauts, and one representative from a third country participating in the ISS project, the press secretary said. "If the crew is not increased from three people to seven, this will seriously change flight plans of not only Russian cosmonauts but also those from the European Space Agency, the Japanese, and Canadian agencies. Their presence at the ISS in this case becomes generally problematic," Gorbunov said.

The European Space Agency's representative office in Moscow confirmed in an interview with Interfax on Tuesday that longer intervals between shuttle launches and NASA's possible plans to abandon the building of a number of modules will indeed cause serious difficulties in the arrangement of flights of European astronauts to the ISS.

Russia is willing to offer its services concerning rescue equipment for the ISS, Gorbunov went on to say. Russian manned spacecraft of the Soyuz series already now play the role of rescue vehicles for the orbital station, and if two such craft are constantly attached to the ISS, its crew can be immediately increased to six people, for, as is known, this is the maximum number of cosmonauts that the two craft can return to the Earth in case of an emergency. What is more, since the new docking unit Pirs was set up at the station, the Russian segment can receive three spacecraft simultaneously, both manned and cargo ones, Gorbunov said.

Meanwhile, the NASA representative office in Moscow told Interfax on Tuesday that there are so far no reasons to publicly disclose U.S. plans concerning the financing of the ISS construction, the organization of flights to it, and its further operation.

A report drawn up by the expert commission was submitted on November 2, the NASA source said. All proposals contained in it will be carefully analyzed by a national conciliatory commission, which is going to submit its recommendations concerning the station's further construction and management to NASA in December, it said.

As was reported earlier, the U.S. independent expert commission put together in the summer of this year completed studying NASA's financial state, including expenses for constructing the ISS. In particular, the commission discovered that NASA's over-expenditures for the ISS in the past year alone amounted to $4 billion. Moreover, due to inefficient management, NASA's overall expenses for the ISS, which were originally planned at $17.5 billion in 1993, have already topped $30 billion.

In connection with this, the expert commission has already worked out recommendations to reduce the number of modules to be set up at the American segment of the station, which would in turn make it possible to cut costs both for their creation and flights of American shuttles necessary for constructing and servicing the ISS.

The experts take the view that NASA could axe plans for constructing three elements for the orbital station, including a seven-person recovery landing capsule, an engine module capable of upgrading the station's maneuverability, and a living module. Meanwhile, the absence of the recovery capsule will make it impossible to increase, as is so far planned, the number of a long-term crew from three people to seven.