Parts of Mars were once "drenched" with so much water that life could easily have existed there, NASA said.

The robot explorer Opportunity has seen clear evidence of the main goal of Mars exploration - that water once flowed or pooled on the Red Planet's surface.

"Opportunity has landed in an area of Mars where liquid water once drenched the surface," NASA associate administrator Ed Weiler told a news conference. "Moreover, this area would have been good habitable environment."

That does not mean that evidence of life has been found - but it suggests that life could have evolved on Mars just as it did on Earth, NASA said. It does mean NASA can go ahead with a plan to eventually send people to Mars. Finding strong evidence of water has been a prerequisite for more ambitious missions.

Evidence of frozen water has been seen in several places on Mars, and photographs taken from orbiters have shown structures that could have been formed by flowing or gushing water, but the Opportunity's instruments provide the strongest evidence yet of something resembling the way water flows and collects on or just under the surface of the Earth.

Opportunity landed on January 24 in a small crater on the vast flat Meridiani Planum near the planet's equator. It has been studying finely layered bedrock in the crater's wall.

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