  We report on the first results of a long-term project to derive distances of
galaxies at cosmological distances by applying the CO-line width-luminosity
relation. We have obtained deep CO-line observations of galaxies at redshifts
up to 29,000 km/s using the Nobeyama 45-m mm-wave Telescope, and some
supplementary data were obtained by using the IRAM 30-m telescope. We have
detected the CO line emission for several galaxies, and used their CO line
widths to estimate the absolute luminosities using the line-width-luminosity
relation. In order to obtain photometric data and inclination correction, we
also performed optical imaging observations of the CO-detected galaxies using
the CFHT 3.6-m telescope at high resolution. The radio and optical data have
been combined to derive the distance moduli and distances of the galaxies, and
Hubble ratios were estimated for these galaxies. We propose that the CO line
width-luminosity relation can be a powerful method to derive distances of
galaxies to redfhift of z = 0.1 and to derive the Hubble ratio in a significant
volume of the universe.
  Key words: Cosmology - Galaxies: general - Distance scale - CO line
