"The Soyuz capsule docked automatically at 12:26 Moscow time (0826 GMT)," said the spokeswoman for the space control centre in the town of Korolyov near Moscow where the docking procedure was shown on a large screen.

With the completion of the docking, the astronauts from the Soyuz capsule are expected to open a hatch and enter the ISS at around 2:00pm (1000 GMT), Russian news agencies quoted officials as saying.

Apart from Garriott, who is paying 30 million dollars (22 million euros) for his 10-day journey in space, the capsule is also carrying Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and US astronaut Michael Fincke.

Garriott is the son of former US astronaut Owen Garriott, who in 1973 spent two months aboard Skylab, the first orbiting space station.

On the ISS, Garriott will meet a member of the world's other space dynasty, Sergei Volkov, the son of former Soviet cosmonaut Alexander Volkov.

The arriving trio will replace Volkov and the rest of his crew including South Korea's first astronaut, Yi So-Yeon, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who are due to return to earth on October 24.

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