MOSCOW - A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a Canadian satellite blasted off on Monday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos said.

Live TV broadcast showed that the carrier rocket, with an Anik- G1 telecommunications satellite onboard, was launched from the space center at 10:36 pm Moscow time (1836 GMT).

The 4,905-kg satellite will be put into its designated orbit by a Briz-M booster.

Operated by the Ottawa-based Telesat company, the satellite will be serving the Americas and the Pacific region with C-band, Ku-band and X-band transponders.