Moscow  - Just seconds before blast off, Russia delayed the launch Monday of one of Europe's most technically advanced space missions, a Space Forces spokesman said.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying the launch was delayed for 24 hours for "technical reasons."

The 450-million-dollar European Space Agency (ESA) satellite is to reach orbit strapped to the back of a modified Russian ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in north-west Russia.

The send off of the satellite known as Gravity field and steady- state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) has been pushed back several times over fears that the launch system was not ready after another advanced ESA satellite, meant to map the world's ice fields, crashed in 2005.

GOCE aims to measure the tug and pull of the earth's gravity on the world's oceans and peaks.

The European satellite was years in planning and design to shape a satellite frame that could withstand to trying atmospheric conditions at its unusually low orbit, skimming just 260 kilometres above the earth.

At that altitude buffets of air streams are still present in the atmosphere.

Gravity's pull is radically different at the earth's poles than at the equator, and ESA's scientists hope to map these miniscule gravitational variations through two six-month test periods.

They say the data could help understand the tides and currents of the oceans; revolutionize the way height is measured; and aid in predicting climate change, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. (dpa)