CAPECANAVERAL, Fla. -- A potential space race for a Soyuz seat to the InternationalSpace Station is brewing.

Todayin Warsaw a Polish businessman, Leszek Czarnecki, 39, announced his intentionto secure with the help of Space Adventures of Arlington, Va. -- a seat on anupcoming outpost taxi mission.

Iam very interested in flying in space. It would be the realization of alifelong dream, Czarnecki said in a prepared statement.

Czarnecki,who holds a PhD in economics, is the president and CEO for leasing andinsurance of Credit Agricole Poland and co-founded Europejski FunduszLeasingowy (EFL), Polands largest leasing and financing company. He intends tobegin an initial two-week period of medical checks and training near Moscowalmost immediately.

Hesprobably the most well known entrepreneur in Poland and hes an ideal candidateto fly, said Eric Anderson, Space Adventures president. He speaks the Russianlanguage fluently. He has the money, hes an adventurer and hes a credibledeep-sea diver who is in great health.

Butwith a busy schedule and a desire to remain low key about the opportunity tofly in space until after he finishes the first round of medical tests andtraining exercises, Czarnecki is not yet committing himself to fly a particularmission.

Afterthat process well determine when and if he wants to fly, said Anderson, whoacknowledged the option to fly as soon as this November is being considered.

Thenews comes one day after MirCorp of Amsterdam announced it is negotiating withDestiny Productions of Los Angeles to send NSYNC band member Lance Bass, 23, tospace station Alpha on the November taxi mission, hence the potential conflict.The Soyuz spacecraft holds three people and only two are actually needed forthe trip to orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan -- a mission thatis required to replace the space station's lifeboat with a fresh ship twice ayear. That leaves one seat open for fare paying customers.

RussianAviation and Space Agency chief Yuri Koptev said Wednesday a single seatremains open for the taxi flight late this year and all it will take to securethe spot is a signed contract.

However,neither Space Adventures nor MirCorp are that far along in the process. Andneither the Russian space agency nor NASA has yet been formally approached forthe approval of Czarnecki or Bass.

Adecision on who will get the November Soyuz seat isn't expected until May.According to the agreement between the station's international partners, Russianeeds to propose whom it will fly on the Soyuz at least six months before theflight.

ButCzarnecki's plans to pay Space Adventures $200,000 to go through what amountsto space tourist boot camp during the next few weeks make him the more seriousand immediate candidate for the seat.

AnApril mission is already booked with South African Internet guru MarkShuttleworth, an excursion booked by Space Adventures. Shuttleworth's flight isto be one year after U.S. businessman Dennis Tito became the world's firstfare-paying space tourist -- a voyage brokered in part by both MirCorp andSpace Adventures.

Andersonsaid Wednesday that the Russians likely wont select someone to fly based on afirst come, first served basis. Instead, variables including technicalability, language proficiency and the ability to pay will be considered.

Moreover,Anderson, a space tourism advocate, doesnt see a problem in the fact that morethan one person is interested in flying on the same mission.

Theinterest has been very strong and in general its a good indication thattheres a lot of other people out there who want to do this, and I canguarantee that there are other candidates for the November flight that have notbeen made public, Anderson said.

MirCorpofficials had no comment about the Czarnecki news and pointed to its statementabout Bass, released Wednesday, in which the company said it also is discussingthe November flight with other candidates.

MirCorphas fought for the past several years to open the exploration of space to all.We believe firmly that the excitement and beauty of this frontier should not belimited to a handful of professionals, the company said in its statement.