Russia and Brazil have reached an agreement on sending a Brazilian cosmonaut to space aboard a Russia spaceship, the Federal Space Agency said Tuesday.

"The Russian-Brazilian intergovernmental commission for trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation has reached a tentative agreement. What remains to be done is to sign a contract," the agency's spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko told the Interfax news agency.

Davidenko said Brazilian cosmonaut Marcus Pontes is likely to ride a Russian Soyuz ship as early as in April 2006.

The contract may be signed before the end of October during President Vladimir Putin's visit to Brazil, officials said.

Source: Xinhua