  Carbon monoxide molecules in their electronic, vibrational, and rotational
ground state are highly attractive for trapping experiments. The optical or ac
electric traps that can be envisioned for these molecules will be very shallow,
however, with depths in the sub-milliKelvin range. Here we outline that the
required samples of translationally cold CO (X$^1\Sigma^+$, $v"$=0, $N"$=0)
molecules can be produced after Stark deceleration of a beam of laser-prepared
metastable CO (a$^3\Pi_1$) molecules followed by optical transfer of the
metastable species to the ground state \emph{via} perturbed levels in the
A$^1\Pi$ state. The optical transfer scheme is experimentally demonstrated and
the radiative lifetimes and the electric dipole moments of the intermediate
levels are determined.
