Haignere's husband -- fellow French astronaut Jean-Pierre Haignere -- was on hand for the ceremony, and so was her mother, who called up to say how proud she was of the only woman among the 16-member European Space Agency astronaut corps.

"The first phase of our mission has been accomplished successfully," Haignere said.

"We're happy to have ESA onboard," Culbertson added.

Led by Afanasyev and Kozeev, the visiting crew will spend the better part of their stay preparing an older Soyuz at the station for a return trip to Earth. The Russian cosmonauts also will film a television commercial for a Japanese company that makes a popular soft drink.

Haignere will conduct scientific experiments that cover a wide range of disciplines. Among them: Research in human life sciences, biology, materials science and studies of Earth's environment from space.

Shortly after their arrival, the so-called Soyuz TM-33 crew took part in a safety briefing chaired by Culbertson, who outlined various station emergency procedures for the visitors.

The Soyuz crew then began unpacking their luggage, and Haignere set out to set up her various experiments.

A rheumatologist who holds a doctorate in neuroscience, Haignere flew a two-week mission to Russia's former space station Mir in 1996, and her husband flew to the same outpost three years later. His mission commander: Afanasyev.

Launched Sunday from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz crew capped a two-day trip to the station with a 6:44 a.m. EDT (1044 GMT) docking at the outpost.

With Afanasyev at the controls, the Soyuz made a slow, deliberate approach to the station as the two craft flew in formation over eastern Asia.

The docking was timed to take place over Russian ground communications stations so that specialists in Russia's Mission Control Center could maintain radio contact with the craft.

Spectacular color images of the rendezvous were beamed back to Earth via a camera on the elbow of the station's $600 million Canadian robot arm. They showed the thimble-shaped Soyuz making its final approach to the station at an altitude of about 250 miles (400 kilometers).

Black-and-white images of the 17-story station also were beamed back from Soyuz cameras and broadcast live on NASA TV.

Fuel meters on the Soyuz indicated that more propellant was used than expected as Afanasyev flew the Soyuz around the outpost to line it up with an Earth-facing port on the station's Russian Zarya space tug.

But the docking otherwise went flawlessly, and once the two craft linked up, Culbertson followed a nautical and station tradition by ringing a bell in the U.S. Unity Module.

"Soyuz arriving," Culbertson said over space-to-ground radio channels.

Afanasyev and his crew will remain at the station until next Tuesday. The trio will return to Earth at 10:52 p.m. EDT that day (0252 GMT Oct. 31) in a Soyuz that has been parked at the outpost since April 30.

Soyuz crew transport vehicles serve as emergency lifeboats at the station and would be used if a crisis forced a crew to abandon ship and return to Earth. The craft have an orbital design life of six months so they are swapped out twice a year by visiting Soyuz taxi crews.

Culbertson and his two cosmonaut colleagues launched to the station in August and are in the midst of a four-month research tour at the outpost. The so-called Expedition Three crew is scheduled to return to Earth Dec. 10 aboard NASA's shuttle Endeavour.