The American millionaire, Steve Fossett, has said he will not decide immediately whether or not to make another attempt at flying round the world in a hot-air balloon.

He spent the night in a Russian hotel after being forced to land near the city of Krasnodar, on Monday, after some of his equipment malfunctioned.

The BBC's Andrew Harding reports from Moscow (Dur: 0-40")

He encountered problems including the heating system, ending his third bid to become the first person to circle the world in a balloon.

The Solo Spirit touched ground near the town of Timashevsk in the Krasnodar region at 1115 GMT (1415 Moscow time).

A surprise visitor for Russian border guards

Fossett was traveling at an altitude of 3,000m, and spent several hours looking for an open, flat area to make his landing in the marshy region.

Fossett's record attempt has been stymied by bad weather, low winds and faulty equipment.

His balloon, Solo Spirit, lost considerable headway over Europe, and suffered equipment problems that left Mr Fossett shivering in the cockpit.

Joni Westerhouse, spokesperson for Solo Spirit's Mission Control in Missouri: "No heat in his cabin" (Dur: 0' 23")

Mission Control in Missouri has confirmed the landing in Russia. The control team said: "We know that he's cold, we know that he's uncomfortable."

"I categorise it as relatively unlikely that it will be a complete round the world flight at this point," said Alan Blount, the flight's Ground Director.

Russian authorities offered Fossett every assistance in landing and reported that the landing was smooth.

Voyage stymied by bad weather, low winds and faulty equipment

He entered Russian air space over the Black Sea late on Sunday and hit a slow wind, leaving him floating at 30 miles an hour.

Drifting over the port of Novorosisk at an altitude of 2,000 m (6,600 feet), he encountered technical problems with the balloon's air-burner and his heating.

Alan Blount said that a heating device, which keeps the pilot's basket at between 45 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit, had broken down. Fossett reported to his team simply that he was "cold".

The flight, launched in St. Louis on New Year's Eve, was expected to take two or three weeks.

Mr Fossett's projected route would have taken him over north-east England, the Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, southern Japan and via the Pacific to British Columbia, Canada, landing north-east of St. Louis.

Mr Fossett's best previous effort was in January, 1997, when his balloon stayed in the air for six days and travelled 10,377 miles (16,700 kilometers).

He eventually ran out of fuel, having used up too much burner gas in manoeuvres to avoid Libya, but landed safely in a mustard field in remote India.

Richard Branson, the British entrepeneur and a veteran of balloon disasters, offered his sympathy to the American balloonist.

Virgin Global Challenger team members worked over the Christmas holiday period to reconstruct the balloon that flew out of Mr Branson's grasp in December.

A new launch of the Virgin balloon is planned during the weather and wind window over Morocco before mid-February.

Other balloonists competing to be the first person to fly non-stop around the world have recently been forced to pull out of the race.

Kevin Uliassi landed safely in northern Indiana just three hours after lifting off from the floor of a rock quarry in Rockford, Illinois, on Wednesday.

British tycoon Richard Branson had to delay his bid in December when the Virgin Global Challenger balloon broke loose in Morocco before launch and was damaged.

More record attempts to try to circumnavigate the earth are in preparation.

American balloonists Dick Rutan, Richard Abruzzo and David Melton are launching their balloon attempt from Albuquerque New Mexico on January 6, 1998.

Their team say they aim to circle the earth in the Global Hilton, fuelled by a combination of helium and hot air, in less than 16 days.

Co-pilots Bertrand Piccard, from Switzerland, Wim Verstraeten, from Belgium, and Andrew Elton of the UK plan to take off in their Breitling Orbiter 2 on January 8.
 

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