The 13-tonne lab was transferred to ESA at a ceremony attended in this northern German city, where a small army of technicans had spent four years fitting out its shell with control, communications and research equipment.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the scheme as a "fascinating example" of European cooperation in hi-tech.

Columbus, in gestation for 10 years and costing around a billion euros (1.25 billion dollars), is designed to enable European scientists to carry out research in Earth's orbit.

Zero gravity can have a big impact on biological organisms and minerals, and understanding this can help the development of new materials and preparing for long manned missions in space.

Space also offers the chance to do research in fundamental physics that is impossible or too costly to do on Earth.

Columbus will be transported to Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 28 by a giant Beluga aircraft.

But it will then be placed in storage until it can be taken up, which is expected to be towards the end of 2007 at the earliest. It was initially scheduled to have been attached to the ISS in 2003.

The ISS construction programme has been badly affected by the loss on February 1, 2003 of Columbia, one of the four space shuttles, which are the only vehicles capable of taking large pieces aloft.

The shuttle is expected to be retired in 2010 after 30 years in service, which means the ISS can only be completed if the three remaining craft, each intensively prepared for every mission, fly frequently and at regular intervals.

Another piece of European hardware awaiting its maiden flight next year is a robot supply ship, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which is designed to be launched on an Ariane-5 rocket.

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