Following a similar move by the Senate, the House agreed late Wednesday to amend a law designed to pressure Russia over its sales of nuclear technology to Iran, but which also would block NASA's future access to Soyuz.

With the change, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will continue to be able to use Soyuz to ferry its astronauts and their supplies from Earth to the space station through 2012.

The two chambers will have to iron out small differences in their bills before submitting a final version of the legislation to President George W. Bush for his signature.

The legislation amends a 2000 law which forbid the United States from using or buying any of Russia's space know-how as long as Moscow continued to export nuclear technology to Iran, which Washington fears will develop nuclear weapons.

The law threatened an agreement with the Russian space agency to provide NASA with access to Soyuz to carry US astronauts and supplies to the space station.

Several US astronauts have flown into space on Soyuz since the Columbia space shuttle exploded on a return flight in 2003, forcing NASA to suspend the shuttle program.

The most recent Soyuz flight at the beginning of October carried an American astronaut.

NASA resumed shuttle flights in July, but a number of problems forced the agency to again ground its shuttle fleet.

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