© Reuters
A United Nations working group is currently looking into how the UN should respond to possible threats to the planet from near-earth objects, such as asteroids, Mazlan Othman, the Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs
(UNOOSA), told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on October 14 2010, the UN News Service said.
She said that the working group - within the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space - is expected to come up with recommendations which would be presented to the General Assembly for UN member states to make a decision on response to near-earth objects.
"We now have a working group that has a multi-year work plan in the committee to discuss this, and this working group will come up with a draft on how the UN should deal with this situation," said Othman, who was in New York to attend the Assembly's discussions on international co-operation on the peaceful uses of outer space.
She said the Vienna-based Committee is also discussing space debris, among other issues, and long-term sustainability of space exploration.