China's moon-probe program will pave the way for the country's high-tech breakthroughs and innovation and will help train a large group of top scientists, a senior space scientist said in Guiyang Saturday.

Ouyang Ziyuan, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and also the country's chief scientist on the moon-probe program, said at a symposium Saturday that China will benefit from its probe of the moon, particularly in the field of scientific innovation.

The moon probe demands lots of advanced technologies in the aspects of rocket communications, observing and control, remote sensing and manufacturing of lots of complicated instruments, the scientist said.

He said the research progress of the all the above mentioned technologies will also drive the development of some fundamental science research which will ultimately upgrade country's science and technology.

This has already been illustrated by the United States and the former Soviet Union, which applied and developed their moon probe technologies in many fields for both military and civil uses.

Currently, China plans to invest 1.4 billion yuan (US$175 million) in the first phase of the program and funding will increase in the next second and third phases, Ouyang said.

He said the investment accounts for a very little of the country's GDP but it will be meaningful for China's economic and sustainable development.

In the 20th century, humans performed six manned moon flights and three unmanned missions, collecting 382 kilograms of samples from the moon and a great amount of scientific data.

(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2006)