Beijing: China has outlined plans to send a lunar mission by 2006, days before attempting to become the third country after Russia and the United States to put an astronaut in space.

In his comments on the country's first manned space mission with the launch of Shenzhou V, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on October 7 told reporters at an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bali that China would send a man into space "very soon".

Earlier media reports quoting senior space officials had said that China planned to launch an explorer to the moon as early as in three years time.

"China will continue to develop its space exploration plans. At a future time, China will carry out lunar landing and flight experiments," the deputy secretary of the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, Wang Shuquan was quoted as saying by the website of the leading Chinese newspaper, 'People's Daily'.

Named after a Chinese mythical lady who flew to the moon for a lonely but peaceful and harmonious life, Chang'e will travel for less than week, before its lunar orbiting mission, Wang said.

China has made key technical breakthrough in its first moon exploration satellite programme, which was launched in March 2003, media reports said.

PTI