"I'm actually hoping that your point of view will change when you see the Earth from space for the first time," Ansari, an American of Iranian origin, told a news conference.

Because "we realise how small and fragile it is compared to the rest of the universe," she said, "I hope it will give us a better sense of responsibility."

Ansari was due to blast off from the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket at 10:08 am (0408 GMT) Monday.

An engineer who made her fortune in the telecommunications sector, she has promoted efforts to make space more accessible to humans through the X Foundation, which encourages advances in human space flight.

She is thought to have paid about 25 million dollars (20 million euros) for her first trip into space.

Ansari is to be accompanied by professional astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria of the United States and Mikhail Tyurin of Russia for the journey to the International Space Station (ISS), where she will spend about eight days before returning to Earth on September 28 with two of the ISS's current occupants.

While at the ISS she is due to carry out experiments for the European Space Agency, as well as keeping an internet blog.

Now aged 40 and a US citizen, Ansari lived in Iran until she was 16. She said she did not want to get involved in the political tensions between the United States and Iran.

She would be taking an Iranian flag with her, she said, but added that during television broadcasts from the ISS she would probably not wear the flag on her space suit, as she has been seen doing before.

Fourteen members of Ansari's family left Moscow on Sunday for the Baikonur space centre, which Russia rents from Kazakhstan, to wish her well and witness the launch.

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