New catalytic systems, synthesised by a variant of the citrate route, are proposed for the partial oxidation of methane. They consist of solid solutions - barium, zirconium, rhodium and oxygen - with a perovskite structure of formula BaZr(1-x)RhxO3. Detailed analysis of the XRD diffractograms and the TGA cycles show that Rh is randomly distributed as Rh-IV among the B sites of the perovskite, together with Zr. The activities of the catalysts have been tested for the catalytic partial oxidation of methane at short contact times to evaluate the potential of materials giving promising results in terms of syngas yield at low Rh loading. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.