  The production of eta mesons has been measured in the proton-proton
interaction close to the reaction threshold using the COSY-11 internal facility
at the cooler synchrotron COSY. Total cross sections were determined for eight
different excess energies in the range from 0.5 MeV to 5.4 MeV. The energy
dependence of the total cross section is well described by the available
phase-space volume weighted by FSI factors for the proton-proton and proton-eta
pairs.
