Paris, March 17 (AFP): Claims that life or the potential for it exists on Mars got a boost yesterday when scientists declared that they saw the remains of a frozen sea on the planet?s surface and speculated that the ice may hold preserved organisms.

Planetary geologists led by John Murray of the UK?s Open University said the evidence comes from pictures sent by the European space agency?s Mars Express Orbiter.

High resolution, stereoscopic images reveal a flat, ?plate-like terrain? in the region of southern Elysium Planitia, near the Martian equator, that appears remarkably like fields of pack ice on earth, they say.

The ?frozen lake? measures about 800 by 900 km and is probably about 45 metre deep on average, making it similar to the North Sea.

?If our interpretation is confirmed, this is a place that might preserve evidence of primitive life, if it has ever developed on Mars,? the group ventures in Nature, the British science weekly.

The team believes the water is the relic of an ocean made from sub-surface ice that was melted by volcanic activity.