  The photonuclear production of vector mesons in ultraperipheral heavy ion
collisions is investigated within the QCD color dipole picture, with particular
emphasis on the saturation model. The integrated cross section and the rapidity
distribution for the A + A --> V + A + A (V = rho, omega, phi, J/Psi) process
are computed and theoretical estimates for scattering on both light and heavy
nuclei are given for energies of RHIC and LHC. A comparison with the recent
STAR data on coherent production of rho mesons is also presented. Furthermore,
we calculate the photoproduction of vector mesons in proton-proton collisions
at RHIC, Tevatron and LHC energies.
