The angular distribution of neutral pions produced in the pp --> pp pi
(0) reaction has been measured at a beam energy of 310 MeV. Significan
t deviations from isotropy are found, which increase for small excitat
ion energies of the final proton-proton pair. The results imply that d
-wave pion production is important, even close to threshold. The param
eter deduced for this is in quantitative agreement with data taken at
very low excitation energy but various beam energies. Evidence is also
presented for some P-wave excitation in the final proton-proton syste
m. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.