French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin will sign the deal at Raffarin's offices.

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

Alyoshin told a press conference in Moscow last week that the deal could earn the Russian companies involved around one billion euros (1.14 billion dollars) over the next five to six years.

The construction of a new launch pad in Kourou suitable for the Soyuz spacecraft is expected to cost the European Union some 300 million euros, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said last month, when he and Raffarin agreed in principle the deal during Raffarin's visit to Moscow.

Alyoshin said last week that France had agreed to contribute half of the costs the European Union will incur.

The first Soyuz rocket is expected to take off from Kourou in 2006.

SPACE.WIRE