Russia will send Malaysia's first cosmonaut into space in October 2007 as part of a scientific mission aboard the International Space Station, Russian and Malaysian space agencies said today.

"2007 is a very good year as the whole world will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the lauching of the first artificial satellite," Mazlan Otman, the director of Malaysia's National Cosmic Agency, was quoted by RIA-Novosti news agency as saying.

The Soviet Union became the first country to put a satellite in earth orbit on October 4, 1957.

3,700 candidates

Otman and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Perminov met today in Moscow to discuss preparation for the 2007 space mission.

Malaysia has yet to chose the astronaut and said today it had received over 3,700 candidacies.

Russia and Malaysia signed a deal to send Malaysia's first cosmonaut into space onboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft during a visit to Malaysia by Russian President Vladimir Putin in August 2003.