MOSCOW: A Russian cargo ship blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome early Friday carrying equipment and provisions for the international space station, where supplies for the two crew members have dwindled, Russian news agencies reported.

The Progress M-51 took off from the remote cosmodrome in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 22:19 GMT on Thursday and entered orbit 200 kilometres above the earth about 9 minutes later, ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies said.

The ship was scheduled to arrive at the station Sunday morning with about 2.5 tons of food, water, fuel and research equipment for Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and US astronaut Leroy Chiao, who are in their second month on the station.

Russian and American space officials were alarmed earlier this month to learn that Sharipov and Chiao had gone through so much food on the station.

NASA officials said there was food to last 7 to 14 days beyond Christmas Day if the supply ship did not arrive and called the situation "critical." The crew has already been ordered to cut back on meals because food is running short.

A Russian Space Agency spokesman has said the two could be forced to return to Earth if the Progress does not reach the station on time.

An independent team was looking into how the orbiting station's food inventory ended up being tracked so poorly and how it can be improved in the future.

Sharipov and Chiao's launch to the station in October was delayed twice - once after the accidental detonation of an explosive bolt used to separate the ship's various components, and then when a tank with hydrogen peroxide burst due to a sudden change in pressure.

Russian rockets and the non-reusable Soyuz space craft have been the only way to the space station and back since the Columbia tragedy in February 2003.

(China Daily 12/25/2004 page1)