SnO2 is one of the promising candidates for the use as anode materials in lithium batteries. This work describes the X-ray absorption near-edge spectra (XANES) and the electrochemical properties of nanocrystalline SnO2 and In-doped SnO2 via a soft chemistry route. Both undoped and In-doped systems showed excellent reversibility for Li ions. XANES and HRTEM studies of the samples prepared at various temperatures revealed the effect of low-temperature synthesis on size quantization compared with the samples prepared at higher temperature. The particle size of the synthesized materials were between 6 and 50 nm for the Sn0.9In0.1O2 and SnO2, respectively. The cycling performances for the In-doped systems were better than that of the undoped SnO2. In all the cases, there is a large first cycle irreversible capacity, as reported. The variation of electrochemical properties with respect to the In content was studied and discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.