TOKYO (AP) -- Less than one month after announcing an ambitious plan to send Japan's first astronauts into orbit and set up a base on the moon, the head of Japan's space agency said Wednesday that budget cuts are pushing the program to near collapse.

"If the present rates of decline continue, the space program will collapse," said Keiji Tachikawa, a former private sector executive who assumed leadership of the space agency, known as JAXA, four months ago. "We are almost in a crisis situation."

Parliament has cut the agency's budget each year since it was created in 2003 by merging three government space programs. JAXA currently operates with an annual budget of some 200 billion yen (US$2 billion, euro2.6 billion), about one-tenth the annual budget of NASA in the United States.

Hoping to pump new life into its operations, the agency announced a major policy initiative earlier this month _ saying it wanted to send its first astronauts into space and set up a base on the moon by 2025.

The agency sent the plan to a government space panel for review, asking for a budget increase to roughly US$2.6 billion (euro2 billion) a year, up from US$2 billion (euro1.6 billion) last year. Tachikawa acknowledged that funds were hard to come by with Japan's economy still trying to rebound from more than a decade of stagnation.

"I think Japanese policy-makers recognize the importance of our program, and won't allow it to collapse," Tachikawa said at a news conference.

The program had received a boost from China's success in putting its first man in orbit in October 2003. Beijing later announced plans for a trip to the moon, setting the stage for what many analysts see as a potential space race in Asia.

Tachikawa said Japan was ''stimulated'' by China, but wasn't competing for space honors.

"Of course, China's manned space flight stimulated Japan. I think in the near future you will see other countries join that list as well," he said. "But we fundamentally do not want to be involved in a space race."

Instead, he suggested JAXA could increase its cooperation with other Asian space agencies, including possibly working on a satellite to monitor earthquakes or other natural disasters. He didn't offer further details.

JAXA will make a final decision on whether it's ready to pour resources into manned space travel and build the moon base by 2015.