"At the present time there is a ban until the circumstances (of Wednesday's crash) are explained," Zhunisbek Sultanmuratov told AFP by telephone from the Kazakh capital, Astana.

The Proton rocket, launched on Wednesday, crashed 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of the village of Atasu in the northern Karaganda region of the ex-Soviet republic due to a fault in one of the rocket's engines, Interfax news agency said.

The crash was strikingly similar to an accident on July 5 that strained relations between Moscow and Astana after Kazakhstan banned rocket launches from the launch pad it inherited after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

Kazakh Prime Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev told journalists in Astana that the foreign ministry had sent a diplomatic note to Moscow expressing "serious concern about the latest accident, and the state of the (Russian) rocket technology.

"Kazakhstan pays serious attention to the consequences arising from the carelessness of the technology of rockets launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome," Interfax news agency quoted Tokayev as saying.

Foreign ministry spokesman Rasul Zhumali told AFP that the note informed Moscow about "the ban of all launches from Baikonur."

A Kazakh government commission headed by first deputy minister Alexander Pavlov flew on Thursday to the scene of the crash, a government statement said. Pavlov also led a team of investigators in the previous crash.

Speaking by phone on Thursday, Tokayev and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "reached agreement on close cooperation of the Kazakh government commission with Russian specialists on issues of liquidating the after-effects of the accident," the statement said.

Tokayev also planned to discuss the crash with Yury Koptev, head of the Russian space agency.

The latest rocket was launched to put a Russian communications satellite in orbit that could transmit signals for the French company Alcatel, Interfax said.

There were no casualties in the accident, the news agency said.

Kazakhstan will demand compensation that "will be significantly more than after the first accident," Tokayev was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Following the first accident, Russia paid the Central Asian republic 270,000 dollars in damages, Interfax said. Kazakhstan lifted the previous ban in August.

The Kazakh premier also asked Putin that Russia make timely rental payments for the use of Baikonur, the statement said.

Russia had agreed to pay Kazakhstan 115 million dollars annually -- 50 million of that in cash and the remainder in goods -- for the use of the space center, Interfax said. So far, Moscow has paid 12.5 million dollars.

This latest accident threatens to reignite Kazakhstan's anger over Russia's overdue rental payments and possible environmental damage caused by the Proton rockets spewing toxic fuel on Kazakh territory when they crash.

Kazakh officials, some of whom have called for closing down the space center, also said they weren't getting their fair share of profits from Baikonur.

In 1998, Russia made 1.8 billion dollars from commercial rocket launches, Kazakhstan's official Khabar television station said.

"This time, Kazakhstan's committee needs to also answer the question of whether the consequences of the use of Baikonur are worth it for this money," the television station said.

Proton Techninal Data at Space & Tech

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