Russia would join a European mission next year to search for possible evidence of Martian life, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said Wednesday.

The agreement on Russia's participation in the "ExoMars" project would be signed in the first quarter of 2013, Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin told reporters.

Roscosmos discussed the move with European Space Agency (ESA) head Jean-Jacques Dorden last week, Popovkin said.

The ExoMars project, currently being developed, is a robotic mission to Mars to search for a possible biosignature of Martian life.

The project initially planned to launch a mission to Mars orbit in 2016, and send a rover in 2018 with the participation of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

However, NASA refused to provide the project with an Atlas-5 rocket to deliver a space vehicle to Mars and the ESA turned to Russia for support.

Roscosmos said it could contribute its Proton rockets.

Russia's full participation in the project would speed up the country's development of its own Mars program and cut costs, Roscosmos said.