China last week published the first photo of the moon taken by the Chang'e I orbiter, which was launched on October 24, with Premier Wen Jiabao hailing the image as evidence of the nation's rise as a space and technological power.

However, some Chinese Web users have suggested the photo, showing a crater-pocked section of the lunar surface, was strikingly similar to one taken in 2005 by the US space agency, the Beijing News reported.

But the paper quoted Ouyang Ziyuan, one of the chief scientists for the mission, as dismissing the claims.

"China's first moon photo is absolutely not a fake," he said.

A comparison of the pictures in the newspaper showed they were taken of the same area.

But in one section only a single small crater appears in the American photo, while the Chang'e image shows two.

Ouyang was quoted as saying that might be due to a lower resolution of the US image.

However, the US photo reproduced in the paper appeared to be sharper than the Chinese one.

China has been pushing to develop a top-flight space programme.

It successfully launched astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit in 2003, making China the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a man in space.

Its third manned space flight is scheduled for late 2008 on a mission that will include three astronauts and China's first-ever spacewalk.

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