Preliminary results on a search for neutrinos from the center of the earth with the Baikal underwater telescope

The deep underwater Cherenkov neutrino telescope NT-200 is currently under construction at lake Baikal. Its first stage NT-36 consisting of 36 optical modules has operated over 2 years since April 1993 till March 1995. Here we present a method to search for nearly vertical upward going muons from neutralino annihilation in the center of the Earth. We present preliminary results obtained from experimental data taken with the NT-36 array in 1994