Moscow ? Russia will not participate in joint lunar exploration with NASA, but will assist the U.S. with its shuttle program until 2015, a spokesman for the Russian space agency said.

After President Bush in 2004 announced his Vision for Space Exploration – a plan for new manned lunar missions – NASA elaborated a program that envisions the construction of a manned lunar base, which will require broad international cooperation.

Igor Panarin said this week at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., that separate funds have not been earmarked for moon exploration projects under Russia’s federal space program for 2006-2015 and Russia will conduct its own lunar research in the next decade using unmanned spacecraft.

But the space official said Russia will assist India and China in their lunar research programs because they also envision only the study of the Earth’s satellite by unmanned spacecraft in the near future, while the U.S. program involves manned flights.