MOSCOW (AP) --Russian President Vladimir Putin urged more attention to space exploration andthe country's space industry, saying that is the only way to ensure nationalsecurity.

Without spaceexploration, Putin said, "Russia will not have the right to lay claim to aworthy place in the civilized world."

In addition, he said,"Russia will not be able to meet its defense capability the way thecountry needs it."

Putin spoke Monday ona visit to the country's leading space enterprise, the Khrunichev institute inMoscow. Khrunichev built most of the Mir space station and parts for theInternational Space Station, and makes Proton and other booster rockets used incommercial launches.

The head of theRussian Space Agency, Yuri Koptev, expressed hope that the government wouldfinance a program to expand the Plesetsk launch pad in northern Russia, theITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Russia currentlydepends on the Soviet-era Baikonur cosmodrome in neighboring Kazakstan for mostof its launches, under a lease agreement reached after the Soviet Unioncollapsed and Kazakstan became an independent country. But Koptev has been keento shift the focus to Plesetsk.

Putin was shown workon a new generation of rockets, the Angara. The Angara-1 rocket will have itsfirst test at the end of next year, Khrunichev director Alexander Medvedevsaid, according to ITAR-Tass.

Speaking of funding shortages after the collapse of themighty Soviet space system, Medvedev said, "Where there is no money, onehas to use his head," ITAR-Tass said.