Moscow - Texan space tourist Richard Gariott said Monday the Russian space agency and NASA should give business entrepreneurs wider access to the International Space Station (ISS).

Silicon Valley millionaire Garriott, who made his fortune designing fantasy computer games, said he fit the profile as he spoke with journalists three days after landing back to earth from his tour of the space station.

"I think NASA and Roscosmos and other partners in the ISS should take broad steps to encourage businessmen, such as myself, to take advantage of the profits to be had in the space sphere - it would be a huge loss not to," Garriott was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying from the cosmonauts training base in Star City outside Moscow.

Garriott paid 30 million dollars for his flight brokered by the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures for the chance to realize his childhood dream and follow his former astronaut dad into the cosmos.

"I wanted to be the very first space tourist, but tje dot-com crash then prevented me from doing so," said the video game mogul who became the sixth-ever space tourist following at least two other US technology company executives.

Garriott also dismissed fears that today's global economic crisis would be a drag on the space programme.

"The most powerful feeling for me was as the spaceship blasted off. It is like a very good ballet: strong, emotional and very elegant ... Even before the start I was thinking about my second flight," Garriott enthused.

Russia's Soyuz spacecraft will be the only ride to the ISS from 2010 to 2015 after the NASA retires its space shuttles, and the head of Russia's Space Agency head Anatoly Perminov last week warned the financial squeeze could endanger its programmes.

"We are holding talks with NASA ... The talks are difficult. It's hard to say whether we shall fully meet our commitments in this financial crisis," Perminov said. (dpa)