Peter Llewellyn: It was the idea of the Energia president

Energia are desperately seeking new funds to keep the Mir programme going beyond August and clearly believe Peter Llewellyn, 51, is their saviour.

Andrew Harding reports from Moscow

Initially, Energia said they had a signed agreement with Mr Llewellyn in which the businessman would commit himself to invest at least $100m in Mir's operations. In return, Mr Llewellyn would get a week-long trip to Mir. "This is sort of a reward for him," said Energia spokesman Sergei Gromov.

But Peter Llewellyn, speaking from Israel, was adamant he would hand over none of his money. "That is total fabrication," he said. "I haven't paid one penny to travel to Mir. I'm going there at the request of Energia to sponsor a children's hospital. I want to make that absolutely clear and for no other reason."

Although the Moscow office of Energia was unavailable on Wednesday to clarify the situation further, the American office of the Russian company was still claiming Mr Llewellyn would pay "a substantial fee" to fly on Mir.

Commercial activities

Mr Llewellyn told BBC News Online that he is the president of a waste and recycling company called Microlife CIS, set up in Russia 18 months ago.

He says he was appointed a vice president of Energia to help the state-owned company commercialise their activities. He claims it was Energia's President, Yuri Simeov, who suggested that he go to Mir on a crew relief flight in August to raise money for the hospital being built on the outskirts of Moscow.

Peter Llewellyn: I'm basically hitching a ride

"I'm going up to Mir to generate funds for a children's hospital. And, obviously, while doing that, it's going to draw attention to Mir isn't it, and I hope the side effect of that will be a lot of incoming business, not only for the hospital, but for the space programme."

Mr Llewellyn says he has passed a medical and will begin training shortly.

It is impossible to confirm these details with Yuri Simeov because he is on holiday. But space commentators in the UK are highly doubtful Mr Llewellyn will fly to Mir in August, irrespective of whether he is paying for the trip or not. They say there is insufficient time to train the businessman before the scheduled August relief flight to the space station.