The government is gearing up to launch multipurpose information satellites as early as next year, setting up a new office Monday to push the long-awaited plan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda celebrated the launch of the Cabinet Satellite Information Center, telling the office's inauguration ceremony in Tokyo that the project will be of "great significance in the nation's history."

Some 185 staffers will work for the center, to be expanded to 300 by the end of March. The center plans to launch four information-gathering satellites by March 2003.

Since Japan has largely depended on U.S. reconnaissance satellites for intelligence data in the Asia-Pacific region, launching its own satellites has been a long-cherished idea -- especially among national security authorities and defense-conscious lawmakers.

"The new system will enable our nation to establish ways to gather information independently, leading us to have plural sources of information. This will significantly reinforce the information-gathering capability of not only the Cabinet but the entire government," Fukuda told the gathering.

The four satellites -- two radar satellites and two optical satellites -- will also be used for providing disaster-relief and for environmental purposes, allowing the center to photograph any part of the world at least once a day.

A radar satellite is effectual in taking pictures at night or in bad weather, while an optical satellite is used in daytime, a center official said.

The bodies of the satellites will be assembled by Japanese electronics makers, including Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Toshiba Corp.

Tokyo and Washington agreed in September 1999 to use U.S.-made parts in the core of the new satellites.