Beijing: China, which is poised to send a manned spacecraft after June this year, could launch an unmanned lunar mission within the next two-and-a-half years, a top space official has said.

"We will be able to embark on a maiden unmanned mission within two-and-a-half years if the government endorses the scheme now," the chief scientist of China's lunar exploration programme, Ouyang Ziyuan, was quoted as saying by the official 'China Daily' on March 3.

Ouyang, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said China should not drag its feet in sending the lunar probe, given the Earth's nearest neighbour probably holds the key to humanity's future subsistence and development.

The announcement of Chang'e programme took place days before a Chinese Parliament session began on March 3 helping attract Legislators' attention.

The director of the China National Space Administration, Luan Enjie, said China will finish the first phase of Chang'e programme by 2010.

After feasibility studies, Chinese scientists have worked out a lunar probe programme, which consists of three stages, including orbiting, landing and returning from the moon with lunar soil and rock samples, Luan said.

PTI