The agreement, which officials from the French space agency CNES are calling a contract, calls for veteran French astronaut Claudie Andre-Deshays to spend eight days in the International Space Station as part of a mission to deliver a fresh Russian Soyuz capsule that will remain docked to the orbital complex.

French Research Minister Roger-Gerard Schwartzenberg and Russian Research Minister Alexander Dondukov are expected to sign the agreement in Moscow on Dec. 22, the French Research Ministry announced Dec. 18.

Serge Plattard, CNES director of international affairs, declined to disclose the cost of the mission during a Dec. 18 interview, but said that French taxpayers "would be very happy with the terms and conditions of the contract."

Andre-Deshays, a veteran of Russia's cosmonaut training school and a former visitor to Russia's Mir space station, is one of several French astronauts who had said short-duration missions of less than two months were of little scientific value.

Plattard said the contract with Rosaviacosmos, the Russian space agency, and with the Rocket Space Corporation Energia of Korolov, Russia for the October 2001 mission should be seen as a precursor to other missions permitting European astronauts more frequent access to the international space station.

"We need to start somewhere, and to seize opportunities where we can. This mission will open the way for others," Plattard said. "Also, Claudie will be flying to Mir as a flight engineer, with responsibilities involving the docking. She is not just there as part of the payload."

Andre-Deshays and Russian cosmonauts will fly to the station to deliver a Soyuz capsule to be docked there for emergency-escapes. They will return in the vehicle that had served as a "lifeboat" for six previous months, the maximum amount of time that a Soyuz capsule can remain unused. Plattard said these Soyuz-replacement missions, of which several are scheduled, is an example of Europe taking advantage of opportunities to get access to the station.

France and Germany sent several astronauts to Russia's Mir space station as part of a fee-paying program in the 1990s.

Schwartzenberg, in a Dec. 18 statement, said France is investing 4 billion French francs ($550 million) in the International Space Station between 2001 and 2004 as part of its contribution to the program run by the European Space Agency.

"We need to mobilize the public, the scientific community and industry to use this grand public infrastructure and to maintain regular flights of French astronauts as the station enters the active phase of its construction," Schwartzenberg said.