Moscow - Russian marriage offices have seen a surge of applications to wed on Friday due to the supposedly lucky character of the date: 08.08.08, officials and local media said.

In Moscow, registry offices will stay open late as applications to marry are up by more than two-thirds compared to a normal Friday in summer, said a spokesman for the city's registry offices, Ms Yevgenia Smirnova.

Normally between 900 and 1,000 marriages take place on a regular Friday or Saturday in summer, she said, but applications had already reached 1,675 by the end of last week.

'The administration is lengthening the working day and cancelling the lunch break,' said Ms Smirnova. 'We'll do our best to satisfy everyone and will do some extra decorating with balloons.'

A similar surge occurred last year with the alignment of the figure seven on July 7.

But many couples deem Aug 8 as especially fortuitous as the digit eight resembles the mathematical sign for infinity, newspapers reported.

'Newly-weds are calling it the 'day of triple infinity' and believe a wedding on this day will bring luck,' the Kommersant newspaper said last Friday.

In some towns, marriage applications for this Friday are three times higher than normal, all available restaurants and limousines have been booked, and one city, Tomsk, plans mass wedding celebrations on its central square, Kommersant said.

However, it also said that in some places, up to a quarter of those who married on July 7 last year had already split up.

The Moscow registry office spokesman also sounded sceptical, saying 43 marriages registered in the city on July 7 last year had ended in divorce.

'It's not really right to say responsibility for family happiness and prosperity can be attached to a particular date,' said Ms Smirnova.

In China, couples are also rushing to get married on Aug 8, in the hope of getting good luck. The Chinese character for the number eight sounds like ' prosper' in Mandarin. -AFP