MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti) - The main goal of the Federal Space Program for 2006-2015 is to retain Russia's status as a leading space power, head of the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) Anatoly Perminov said in an interview with the Military-Industrial Courier weekly.

To achieve this goal, Russia must build up its fleet of spacecraft, Perminov said.

At present, the Russian fleet comprises 96 spacecraft, whereas the United States has more than 400 spacecraft. By 2015, Russia plans to add 73 new-generation spacecraft.

The total budget allocated for Russia's space program is $10.7 billion (a 25% increase against 2005). In the future, the government plans to increase financing by 6% annually.

"We are satisfied with the amount of financing in 2006," Perminov said. It will allow Roscosmos to create a solid scientific and technological base for future expansion of its spacecraft fleet, meeting 51% of the state's satellite needs by 2010 and 90% by 2015, as compared to only 26% today.

Various key projects in the area of fundamental research will be implemented under the program. For example, there is the Phobos-Soil project consisting of a space mission to Mars to take soil samples from Phobos, a Mars satellite, and study them in labs on Earth. Roscosmos plans to use the spacecraft built for the Phobos project as a base model for future exploration of other planets and flights to asteroids and comets.

Perminov said the work in the sphere of manned space flights in 2006 would consist of two key projects, the creation of a multi-purpose lab module to be brought into orbit and docked with the International Space Station in 2008, and the creation of a Clipper space shuttle.