The two men returned to the station at 03:59 (2359 GMT Thursday), ending a spacewalk during which the ISS was left unmanned, the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted mission control spokesman Valery Lyndin as saying.

The spacewalk lasted just under five hours, an hour short of the originally scheduled six hours, and the crew successfully completed almost all planned tasks, Lyndin said.

"The task program was completed in its entirety, with the exception of the dismantling of an adaptor for the setting up of anti-meteorite shields," which was postponed to a later date, ITAR-TASS quoted Lyndin as saying.

Among other tasks, Krikalyov and Phillips had been scheduled to set up an observation camera in view of the docking of new European cargo shuttle Jules Vernes, which is expected to be launched in the spring of next year, and to bring back on board a container that had been attached to the ISS' outer hull.

Krikalyov Tuesday broke the record for the longest total time in space, with two months still left before returning to Earth.

Krikalyov, who has been aboard the ISS since April 15, passed the record previously held by fellow-Russian Sergei Avdeyev, who spent a career total of 747 days, 14 hours, 14 minutes and 11 seconds in space.

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