"This will be very soon, very soon," he told reporters at an ASEAN summit in Bali and monitored here, in response to questions about the launch of China's first manned space mission.

Experts believe a seven-day launch window will begin on Friday with October 15 touted as a likely date for lift-off, weather permitting.

The Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper in Hong Kong cited authoritative sources as saying last week that the launch is expected "right after" a Communist Party Central Committee plenary meeting ending on October 14,

Wen insisted a specific date had yet to be finalised.

"The time has not been finalized yet," he said on Hong Kong cable television when asked if the launch would be next week.

The mission, which would place China alongside the United States and the former Soviet Union as the only nations to send a human into orbit, has been shrouded in secrecy.

Chinese scientists are said to be working 18 hours a day to prepare the flight, which will launch from the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in northwestern China.

The craft, carrying one or two astronauts, is expected to remain in orbit for 24 hours before returning to earth in the deserts of Inner Mongolia.

The Shenzhou program is considered the preliminary step towards sending a probe to the moon and building and manning a Chinese space station.

SPACE.WIRE