President George W Bush is expected to announce next week plans to establish a permanent human settlement on the moon and set a goal of eventually sending Americans to Mars, officials were on Friday quoted as saying.

Bush will direct the government to immediately begin research and development to establish a human colony or space station on the moon with the long-term goal being a manned mission to Mars, the Washington Post reported, quoting administration sources.

The costs are expected to be huge. NASA's budget this year is about $15 billion and this expected to increase next year.

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Bush will announce the plans in Washington ahead of the final State of the Union address of his current term in office.

The plans, the Post said, grew out of a White House group that was assigned to examine the new missions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on February 1, plunging the country in gloom and throwing the future of the space programme into doubt.

At present, the US is receiving stunning pictures of Mars from a robot, which has landed there.

Advocates of a return to the moon, said the Post, argued that a lunar initiative, despite the huge costs at a time of large budgetary deficits, would be useful scientifically. They envision the moon as a base for developing technologies and for rehearsing the dispatch of humans to a much more distant and isolated landing zone on Mars.

The moon can be reached in three days while a trip to Mars would take at least six months.

Sources involved in the discussions said Bush and his advisers view the new plans for human space travel as a way to unify the country 'emotionally' behind a common purpose at a time when relations between the political parties are venomous and polls show that Americans are divided on many issues.