Can Ponting beat Sachin?

There has been a lot of speculation over whether Ponting will beat Sachin or not. After Sachin broke Lara's record of most test runs, many people gave their thoughts on whether or not Ponting is going to beat Sachin.
Lara said "Ricky Ponting (with 10,239 runs, currently sixth on the all-time run-scorer's list) is the guy who can break Sachin's records. He is young enough. I think he is a class player, who may take away the record from Sachin in the future."
Former English batsman Allan Lamb has said that though Indian master blaster Sachin was a brilliant cricketer, but Australian captain Ricky Ponting was closely chasing his world record of maximum Test runs.
No one can even come closer to Sachin in ODI format.
Well..coming to tests, it depends on Sachin's fitness.
Sachin has 12037 runs in 152 matches where as Ponting has 10246 runs in 121 matches. Sachin is 35 years old. He can still play some more years. If Sachin continues his good form for 2-3 years more, no one can beat him.
Sachin says he wants to play the 2011 world cup. But if he plays more of limited over matches, fitness problems may arise for him. I think he needs to concentrate more on the test cricket as a lot of promising young cricketers are proving their talent in the limited overs format.
Ponting can also play for 3 or more years. I think it will be difficult for Ponting to surpass Sachin, but it is not impossible.
If Sachin wants to keep his record safe for a long long time, he better keeps an eye on Ponting and set that record out of his reach before he retires.