Lanthanum manganite oxides were prepared by citric acid gel process. The precursor gel was thermally decomposed in four steps allowing high composition homogeneity and textural stabilisation. As the calcination temperature increased, the lattice constants increased whereas the average oxidation state of manganese decreased resulting in lower cation vacancies (lower y values in LaMnO3+y). The specific surface area (SSA) was found to decrease from 13 to 1.5 m(2) g(-1) when the sintering temperature was raised from 600 to 1000 degrees C. Well characterized (XRD, ATD-ATG, chemical analysis, surface area, SEM, XPS) perovskite phase LaMnO3+y synthetized after calcination at 700-1000 degrees C was tested for total methane oxidation in a fixed bed reactor with feed containing 1% methane, 4% oxygen and the balance helium. The catalytic activity was found to decrease with increasing calcination temperature and correlates not only with the bulk structure of the perovskite phase and consequently oxygen mobility but also with the content of manganese and its surface concentration. At low temperature (<600 degrees C). the decrease of catalytic activity with the increase of calcination temperature is correlated to the increase of surface Mn deficit. At higher temperature (>600 degrees C), the redox system is assumed to occur with the oxygen ions being transported through the lattice to the reduction site for reaction. This mechanism seems to be favoured by the increase of bulk cation vacancy amount. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.