MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said Sunday that preparations for the launch of the Arabsat-4A communication satellite by a Russian rocket were near end.

The Proton vehicle with the Breeze M upper stage, carrying the satellite, set for lift off at 22:10 Moscow time (19:10 GMT) on February 28, has been transferred to a launch pad of the Baikonur space center which Russia leases from the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.

Arabsat 4A is the first of two spacecraft built by EADS Astrium for Arabsat, the communications satellite operator based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.