Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin is to sign the deal in Paris on November 5, the diplomat said.

The deal will allow Russian rockets to use the space centre in the French overseas department in South America to launch telecoms satellites into space.

LAUNCH PAD Arianespace Rebooks DirecTV Bird With SeaLaunch New York - Oct 31, 2003 Arianespace announced today that it has secured a first quarter 2004 launch slot with Sea Launch for the DirecTV 7S satellite. Arianespace was able to provide DirecTV with total mission assurance for the DirecTV 7S launch through a cooperative agreement with Boeing Launch Services and Sea Launch, under the recently formed launch services alliance.

Alyoshin told a news conference on Friday it could earn the Russian companies involved around one billion euros (1.16 billion dollars) over the next five to six years.

The construction of a new launchpad in Kourou suitable for the Soyuz spacecraft is expected to cost the European Union 300 million euros, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said on October 6, when the deal was provisionally agreed with French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

On Friday, Alyoshin said France had agreed to contribute half the costs the European Union will incur.

The Kourou agreement was one of the main topics of a meeting on Friday between Alyoshin and European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin.