Beijing - China is forging ahead with a mission to send a man to the moon as it prepares for manned space flights by 2005, state media reported on Friday.
The moon mission is part of Beijing's ambitious plans to build a space industry, the China Daily quoted Sun Laiyan, vice-director of the China National Space Administration, as saying.
However Sun - speaking at an event to mark the first anniversary of a cabinet "white paper" detailing China's space plans - gave no details or timetable for the mission, according to the newspaper.
A leading Chinese scientist said Beijing, which sent a monkey, a dog, a rabbit and snails into orbit in January aboard its second unmanned "Shenzhou" spacecraft, needed further unmanned flights before it could send an astronaut into space.
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"We must be sure that the astronauts are 100 percent safe in outer space after launching," said Liang Sili of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China will launch moon probes from Long March carrier rockets in collaboration with the European Space Agency, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing plans made public last year.
It said China hoped to explore the moon "in the next decade or longer".
Chinese leaders are eager for the pride and prestige that would come if China joined the United States and former Soviet Union as the only countries to put a person into space.
In 1999, China announced a four-step manned spaceflight plan, with the aim of establishing a space station served by shuttle-style vehicles.
China has looked to aerospace technology to step up developments in telecommunications, weather forecasting, environmental protection, agriculture, medicine and navigation.
Topping China's agenda is a new, more powerful carrier rocket that is also environmentally friendly, Xinhua quoted an official saying.
China, which has launched satellites for US and Brazilian operators, is vying for a bigger slice of the lucrative market for launching commercial satellites.
It has launched 48 satellites with a 90 percent success rate and will launch another 30 in the next five years, Xinhua said.
Chinese astrophysicists have set up a laboratory to study the universe's response to solar activities and interplanetary disturbances, state media said.
"For mankind in the 21st century, space applications will become as essential as electricity and oil in the 19th century," scientist Liang told the China Daily.
"We are just in the first year of of the new century and my prophecy will come true," he said. - Reuters
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