The pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po newspaper said two instructors Li Jinlong and Wu Jie were among the 14, but it denied reports in Hong Kong that the two would be chosen to orbit the earth in the Shenzhou V spacecraft.

Speculation has mounted over when China plans to launch its first manned space flight, with officials on September 16 saying only that it would take place in the next three months.

Three astronauts could in theory man the space flight, but according to analysts only one or two of the 14 who have undergone a decade of training would be chosen.

All the astronauts were in excellent physical and psychological condition, said a source at the launch site in Jiuquan, cited by Wen Wei Po.

The 14 had already undergone training at the base in Gansu province and were present at the launch of the unmanned Shenzhou IV spacecraft earlier this year.

The Shenzhou -- or "divine vessel" -- programme was launched in 1992 and has seen four flights so far.

China hopes to launch a space probe capable of orbiting the moon by 2005 or 2006, which would be the nation's first lunar mission and would eventually lead to a landing on the moon by an unmanned Chinese lunar spacecraft.

SPACE.WIRE