Chinese satellite navigation officials say they intend to field an operational system covering all of Asia by 2010, but they are giving few details on the deployment plans for their global system. In addition China has yet to complete frequency coordination with the United States, Europe, Russia and others.

The European Union's most ambitious technological project, a satellite navigation system designed to provide users with unprecedented accuracy, faces disaster as it remains mired in vicious disputes among the eight companies chosen to build and operate the system.

The days of their cold war may have passed, but Russia and the United States are in the midst of another battle -- this one a technological fight over the United States monopoly on satellite navigation.

Political infighting is undermining the European Union's biggest ever joint technology programmeme: the Galileo satellite navigation network.

The launch over the weekend by China of a navigation satellite , its first for four years, could signal the country's challenge to the American Global Positioning System (GPS) and Europe's fledgling Galileo network, in which China is already a partner.

China has launched its first navigation satellite in nearly four years, taking a step forward in its drive to develop a positioning system intended to eventually rival Washington's GPS and Europe's Galileo.

Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defence minister, says all security restrictions on the country's GLONASS satellite navigation system will be lifted on 1 January to promote economic development.

China's decision to expand the functionality of its satellite navigation network could undermine the economics of Europe's nascent Galileo system, according to sources close to the project.

India's participation in the Galileo project, a satellite navigation system being developed by EU and European Space Agency, expected to rival the United States GPS (global positioning system), has run into the hard ground realities of security concerns. India fears that sharing of sensitive data may not be adequately firewalled from individuals and other nations participating in the enterprise.

Europe should consider using its "civilian" Galileo satellite navigation system for military purposes as part of a drive to recover its escalating costs, Jacques Barrot, EU transport commissioner, has proposed. His suggestion could raise concern in Washington, which has long feared that Galileo could be used to provide military intelligence to potentially hostile regimes. China is one of the investors in the EU satellite system.