"We cannot agree with Mir's impending demise," cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastyanov told the rally, adding that Mir was still in working order and could continue functioning until December 2004.

Sevastyanov said that the ailing Mir would be destroyed at Washington's insistence, to remove any competition to the new International Space Station (ISS).

"The United States are practically owners of the ISS, and Russia would be merely a driver of this American machine," the cosmonaut complained, adding that if Mir were destroyed, Russia would lose parity with the United States in the fields of space research and industry.

The protesters demanded that fuel recently delivered to Mir be used to raise the veteran space station back up to its original orbit, rather than to bring it down to earth as Russian space agencies intend.

The Mir space station is to be brought down some time in early March, less than a month after the 15th anniversary of its launch on February 20, 1986.

The decision to destroy Mir follows several accidents in recent years, including a serious fire and a near-fatal collision with a cargo ship in 1997.

Russia has also found that its commitment to the International Space Station has stretched its funding to breaking point, making it unable to finance both space projects.

The protesters were to appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Moscow region's Governor Boris Gromov to keep Mir up in orbit.

All rights reserved. � 2001 Agence France-Presse. All information displayed on this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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