The country's first astronaut or astronauts were set to fly into space on a historic journey some time after the Oct. 1 National Day holiday, it said, quoting sources close to China's space program.

The Shenzhou V capsule and its propelling rocket arrived at the launch site in Jiuquan in Northwest China's Gansu Province in August. Preparations for the launch were proceeding smoothly, the TV broadcaster said.

The planned manned flight followed four unmanned missions between 1999 and 2002.

Experts and officials of the space program have said they would exercise strict safety precautions. They said China had drawn lessons from the tragedy of the US spaceship Columbia which disintegrated in midair Feb. 1, killing 12 astronauts on board.

Shenzhou V will be fitted with an alarm system to avoid collisions in space, officials have said.

The alarm system will keep the spacecraft clear of orbiting space debris by automatically changing its direction and speed.

Space experts have said an exact launch date for Shenzhou V had not yet been decided because of the many factors involved, such as the activities of the sun, the temperature, radiation, and the situation in the ionosphere.

A corps of astronauts drawn from China's air force has been training for several years. They used Shenzhou IV for their first training session aboard a capsule before it was launched.

The third Shenzhou flight, launched in March 2002, carried a mannequin in a space suit. After the drum-shaped capsule landed in China's northern grasslands, officials said the 10-day flight showed that humans could survive.

Officials of the manned space program refused to release their identities or details of their training.

Foreign experts say China might be planning to send up more than one astronaut on its first flight.

China announced its Shenzhou manned space flight plan in 1999 with the aim of establishing a space station served by shuttle vehicles. The first Shenzhou spacecraft was launched in November 1999, landing in the Inner Mongolia region the following day.

(Shenzhen Daily September 16, 2003)