All that was needed, a senior scientist said, was for government to give the final nod.

"It is absolutely fantastic. China needs to be congratulated as it has become the third nation to send a man to space," said U.R. Rao, former chief of India's premier space agency the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

"It is not that we lack the technological capability. If the government changes its view (on space programmes) then a manned mission is very much possible. India has the scientific capability," Rao told AFP.

China on Wednesday launched an astronaut into space aboard the Shenzhou V craft in an historic mission which makes it only the third nation to achieve the feat.

"I personally compliment the achievement," said George Joseph, advisor to ISRO. "China has been preparing for the last so many years to put a man in space and they have finally achieved that feat.

"I sincerely wish that the astronaut comes back safely," Joseph said. "When it comes to India we have the ability and the technological capability to build a similar spacecraft if (government) direction is given."

India is pursuing an ambitious space programme while casting an envious eye at neighbouring China. Both countries, which fought a bitter border war in 1962, have now taken their Asian rivalry into space.

Just a few days after China said in January that it would send a human into orbit in the second half of 2003, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee publicly urged his country's scientists to work towards sending a man to the moon.

Last month the Indian cabinet approved a proposal by space authorities to send an unmanned mission to the moon by 2008.

India plans to launch a 1,360-kilogramme (2,992 pound) remote sensing satellite this week.

The ISRO said the satellite, named Resourcesat-1, would be launched by the locally-built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on October 17.

"Sending a manned mission needs a lot of funds. It is always a question of money. The Indian space programme is not envisioned to get into a race with China as India has always concentrated on using space for development purposes," space scientist Rao said.

"India has always maintained that its programme is meant for self-reliance in space. In space applications India is far ahead of any other country. At the same time one needs to laud China for what it has achieved," he said.

India, meanwhile, appears to be resting its own space ambitions on its tech-savvy youngsters, the India media reported Wednesday, pointing to the selection by a US-based space interest group of two Indian teenage boys to participate in NASA's Mars exploration programme.

Newspapers were full of praise for Delhi-based Saatvik Agarwal, 16, and Vignan Pattamata, 14, from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, who will join 14 other student astronauts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The reports said the American Planetary Society had been impressed by essays written by the Indians on how they would use the two Mars space probes, named Spirit and Opportunity.

SPACE.WIRE