MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti) - A Proton-M carrier rocket successfully put into orbit Malaysia's Measat-3 communications satellite at 11.40 a.m. Moscow time (8.40 a.m. GMT), a Russian Space Agency official said Tuesday.

"The Russian carrier successfully put the foreign satellite into transfer orbit. Control over the satellite has been transferred to the client, who is responsible for putting the apparatus into geostationary orbit," the spokesman said.

The launch was conducted under a contract between Malaysia's Binariang Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. and International Launch Services (ILS), a Russia-U.S. joint venture involved in marketing Proton carrier rockets.