The space agency NASA of the United States had concluded a contract last December with the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos) to build for it two "Progress" cargo vehicles in 2007-2008, a senior official of the construction corporation told a press conference in Moscow on Thursday.

Besides, "negotiations are now under way on the construction in 2009-2011 of six manned 'Soyuz' and six 'Progress' spaceship to deliver crews and freight to the International Space Station (ISS), " Nikolai Sevastyanov, Head and Constructor-General of the "Energia" Rocket Space Construction Corporation, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

Energia, the principal Russian manned cosmonautics organization, has much work to do in the coming three years to develop the Russian segment of the ISS and to replace the American shuttles by new vehicles, starting from 2010, according to Sevastyanov.

"We shall double the output of 'Soyuz' spacecraft and 'Progress' transport vehicles in 2009. Whereas today we are annually building two 'Soyuz' and four 'Progress' spacecraft, this number will be increased to 4 and 7 respectively," he said.