LIVERPOOL could be at the forefront of a European fight to protect the world from asteroids.
The Government has launched a major early warning programme which experts believe will involve the creation of a giant telescope.
Other measures mentioned in the Government announcement include monitoring of space objects approaching Earth, preparations for evacuation and international co-operation to find methods of directing larger objects away from the planet.
They follow a report by a Government task force last year which recommended that the Government should seek partners to build an advanced telescope - possibly in the Southern hemisphere - to keep watch for near-Earth objects.
Liverpool is the only city with the knowledge and the expertise to build the £10m super telescope, say experts.
John Moores University's Telescope Technologies Ltd (TTL) - a subsidiary of the university - is the only company in the UK capable of producing such a telescope, according to Spaceguard UK, a group of experts and astronomers.
Now campaigners are calling on the Government to specify whether it will go as far as commissioning the high-powered telescope with a three-metre mirror and build it in Liverpool.
Spaceguard UK spokesman Dr Benny Peiser said: "If a new telescope were to be commissioned, Liverpool would be the place - that goes without saying.
We are not competing with anyone else.
"It would appear from yesterday's announcement that Britain is conditioning its final decision on whether European partners agree to do it with us, but we feel that Britain should lead the way.
"TTL are the only people in the UK - and perhaps in Europe - with the expertise to build professional large-scale telescopes.
"Merseyside would become the leading producer of these high-technology telescopes across the world."
Dangerously large asteroids are thought to strike Earth once every 1,000 years.
But Science Minister Lord Sainsbury, who announced the measures at the weekend, is not committed to building the super telescope.
He has asked Britain's Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council to cost the options outlined by the task force.
The Government has said it will announce its decision later this year.
Lord Sainsbury said: "The potential threat of asteroids and other near-Earth objects to our planet is an international problem requiring international action.
The UK can play an important part in how the international community tackles this potential problem."
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