Huang Chunping, chief of the China Manned Space Program's rocket carrier system, added China would realise its dream of space walk with the launch of Shenzhou VII, although he did not specify a date, Xinhua news agency reported.

Huang, 66, who was speaking to children in a speech in Fuzhou, Fujian province, said the mainland also aimed to establish a laboratory in space by 2010 and a space station by 2015, the agency said.

He said preparations for the launch of Shenzhou VI, which would have two pilots, were progressing smoothly, adding that China would begin recruiting female high school students from 2005 and training them to become astronauts.

China's first manned spacecraft, Shenzhou V, was launched in October last year, when pilot Yang Liwei successfully orbited the Earth 14 times.

The mission put China alongside the United States and the former Soviet Union as the only countries to send a man into space.

SPACE.WIRE