The program, to be carried out in the next five years, also calls for stepping up international cooperation, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Sun Laiyan, head of the China National Space Administration, as saying.

Details of what type of projects China has planned for Mars and whether it plans any missions there, were not revealed, but the Beijing News said there were preliminary preparations to explore the Red Planet.

Sun said China would study the distribution and utilization of lunar resources and terrestrial planetary science, particularly the Earth-Moon system.

The program will also study scientific ways to support sustainable development on Earth, Sun said.

Key research areas will also include astronomy and solar physics, space physics and solar system exploration, micro-gravity sciences and space life science.

Sun urged Chinese scientists to increase their understanding of star and universe evolution through the observation and study of the sun and black holes.

China has previously said it hopes to launch a lunar exploration satellite next year as part of a program that aims to place an unmanned vehicle on the moon by 2010, Xinhua said.

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

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