BERLIN, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Germany is to build a new research base in Antarctica, German news agency DPA reported on Monday.

According to the DPA, Germany dispatched on Saturday a prefabricated scientific research team, whose task is to build a base to be erected on the Antarctic coast during the southern summer.

The new base, named "Neumayer III polar-research station," will replace the existing Neumayer Station which is drowning in snow.

Since snow falls repeatedly but does not melt away, the Neumayer Station has become gradually submerged.

The new two-story base is equipped with hydraulic piles so that it can be regularly jacked up to the level of the snowscape next to the Weddell Sea's Atka Bay.

The freighter left the port of Bremerhaven early Saturday, bound for Antarctica with 3,500 tons of building components.

The pieces have already been assembled once in Germany to check that everything works, then dismantled and packed in shipping containers.

The new base costs 26 million euros (around 38 million U.S. dollars).

The DPA said the new base will be landed and hauled to its site by snow tractors, with assembly to begin in December and commissioning set for early 2009.

The federally-funded science agency Alfred Wegener Institute said Neumayer III had a design life of at least 25 years. The existing station has only lasted for 15 years.