Mr Ivanov said that "everything possible is being done to fulfil the task set by the President and the Prime Minister, of making our domestic navigation system, GLONASS, competitive".

The Deputy Prime Minister said that in accordance with the federal law On Navigation Activities signed last week, "transport, technical means and systems, including weapons, military and specialised technology are to be fitted with navigation equipment whose functioning is supported by Russian navigation systems as of January 1, 2011."

Mr Ivanov stressed the need to take into account the results of the work conducted in this area by other countries. He cited the experience of the United States, whose GPS system "was created on the basis of international cooperation and, incidentally, with the participation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian scientists and in general with the use of the achievements of Soviet and Russian science".

The Deputy Prime Minister also drew attention to the country's serious lag in microelectronics, which, in his opinion, hampers the development of the GLONASS project. It is necessary to achieve the "nano-level" in microelectronics and exert every effort to bridge the gap as soon as possible," Mr Ivanov said.

In the opinion of the Deputy Prime Minister, the priorities the Academy should address are to review the fundamental system of coordinates, solve the task of precise and prompt determination of the parameters of the Earth's revolution, create a highly stable national timescale, develop high-precision data transmission lines and form a precision theory of the movement of artificial earth satellites and the planets of the solar system, and create a high-precision model of the Earth's gravitation field.