LONDON (AP) -- It sounds like the stuff of science fiction -- an asteroid smashing into Earth, with devastating effect.

But the British government on Saturday announced plans to watch and prepare for just such a threat.

"The potential threat of asteroids and other Near Earth Objects to our planet is an international problem requiring international action,'' said the Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury.

The government said it would review Britain's telescope facilities to improve monitoring of space objects, set up a facility to provide information on Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and prepare emergency evacuation plans.

Near Earth Objects are asteroids and comets, traveling through space at between 10 and 20 miles (16 and 32 kilometers) per second, whose orbit brings them close to our planet. While objects less than 50 yards (meters) in diameter burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, bigger ones strike the planet's surface about once a century.

Experts estimate that large asteroids capable of devastating a region, or even the planet, strike Earth about once every 100,000 years.

One impact off the coast of what is now Mexico 65 million years ago is thought to have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Another impact in 1908 in Siberia set of shock waves that leveled trees over hundreds of square miles (kilometers).

A report last year by a government commissioned panel of scientists called for Britain to contribute to an international effort to counter asteroid risk.

Sainsbury said Britain would consult with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as the European Space Agency on ways to combat the menace.

Liberal Democrat lawmaker Lembit Opik, who has waged a long campaign for the asteroid threat to be taken seriously, said he was encouraged by the announcement.

"I thank Lord Sainsbury for his willingness to take this project forward. Because he has listened to our campaign for action on cosmic impact, the end of the world might not be nigh after all,'' Opik told the BBC.