Bangalore, Dec 1 (IANS) Indian space agency ISRO is gearing up to host French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni at its headquarters here Saturday and will interact with top scientists.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials, Sarkozy will be at ISRO office between 12.30 p.m. and 1.40 p.m. Saturday.

He will be arriving in India Dec 4 on a four-day visit, during which India and France are likely to further increase cooperation in civil nuclear energy.

India and France are jointly developing two satellites that are expected to be launched sometime next year. One of them is Megha Tropiques Mission to study the water cycle in the tropical atmosphere and the other is SARAL (Satellites for Argos and Altika) to monitor the sea water level.

The Argos and Altika payloads are built and supplied by France while the satellite building and launching are the responsibilities of ISRO.

Preparations to launch ISRO's heavy rocket this month are also on at its rocket launch centre at Sriharikota, around 80 km from here, in Tamil Nadu.

ISRO is also steadily gearing up for the launch of communication satellite GSAT-5P around Dec 20 from its rocket port a Sriharikota around 80 km from here.

According to ISRO officials, the 2,300-kg satellite with 36 transponders that will provide continuity of service to our telecom and television channel customers will be blasted into the space by an Indian GSLV (geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle) rocket.

The Madras High Court Tuesday vacated its stay order issued on the rocket launch after ISRO submitted that the ban on fishing will be for only four hours prior to the flight and not for 15-20 days.

The South India Fishermen Federation had filed a case against the rocket launch as they were not allowed to fish for 15-20 days prior to every launch.