Discussions will focus on space exploration when ministers and heads of agencies of most of the world's space-faring countries rendezvous on Thursday in Lucca, Italy.

High-level representatives from 41 countries, including the 29 ESA and EU states, are invited on 10 November for the Third International Conference on Exploration and the first High-level International Space Exploration Platform.

The participants will build on the debate begun on a European level in Prague in 2009 and continued in Brussels last year during the first dedicated conferences.

The Brussels conference identified the need for policy discussions at international level and called for a first meeting of a High-level International Space Exploration Platform by the end of 2011, making the discussions truly global.

The prime objective in Lucca is to maintain the momentum of the first two conferences by beginning high-level dialogue on space exploration that should allow discussions on the development of a global exploration concept and the future of international collaboration.

The conference will examine potential fields for collaboration, starting with the 'pillars' of exploration, such as space transportation, manned and unmanned orbital infrastructures, robotic exploration and enabling technologies.

The conference is co-organised by the European Space Agency, the Chair of the ESA Ministerial Council - Italy - and the European Commission.

Events at the Palazzo Ducale in Lucca can be followed live via webstream