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STAR CITY, Russia (AP) - A South African businessman aspiring to be the second space tourist is ready for takeoff, Russian space officials said Monday, and the Internet magnate exuded excitement about his plans for genetic experiments in space.

Mark Shuttleworth is paying $20 million for the trip this month - the same sum American Dennis Tito paid Russian space agencies last year to fly to the international station, becoming the world's first space tourist.

``I'm very proud to carry the flag of South Africa, an African country, into space for the first time,'' Shuttleworth told reporters at the cosmonaut training center in Star City outside Moscow.

Shuttleworth and fellow crew members Italian Roberto Vettori and Russian Yuri Gidzenko have been approved for the flight to the space station, space officials said.

Takeoff has been set for April 25, cosmonaut training center spokesman Andrei Maiboroda said. The crew is to leave Saturday for the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to prepare.

The Interfax news agency said an interdepartmental commission that must approve all those who fly on Russian rockets found Shuttleworth had not met ``certain conditions'' for the flight but that he had plenty of time to do so. The report did not elaborate, and officials in the commission could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

A 28-year-old economist who made a fortune with an Internet business, Shuttleworth said he would conduct gene engineering studies on the space station, using animal stem cells. He said he hoped his research could be used to help find cures for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

He said he and cosmonaut Gidzenko had been trained by Russian and South African biologists to conduct the experiments.

Shuttleworth confirmed that he is paying $20 million for the trip - but in installments that will be complete only when the mission is over.

``We have a staggered series of payments covering the training, covering the preparation, covering the launch, covering the completion - a successful completion of what we all hope will be a very good scientific program of flight,'' Shuttleworth said.

AP-NY-04-08-02 1258EDT

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.