The Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po said yesterday that the moon probe mission would kick off early next year, when China will launch an unmanned lunar satellite in April to orbit the lunar surface and collect data.

"China now basically possesses the technology, materials and the economic strength" to put a man on the moon, the paper quoted Long Lehao, deputy chief architect of the lunar probe project as saying.

Long said that the first stage of the lunar probe project will begin when its first lunar orbiter, "Chang'e 1" — named after a female character from Chinese mythology who lived on the moon — is ready for launch, between April and June 2007.

He said the project will move onto its second stage from 2009 to 2015. Long did not mention what will be accomplished during the second stage.

The third stage, beginning in 2017, will see robots being sent to the moon to bring back samples from the moon's surface, Long said.

Astronauts will be sent to the moon in the fourth stage in 2024, he said.

In 2003, China became the world's third country — after the United States and the former Soviet Union — to launch a man into space aboard its own rocket. Last October, it sent two men into orbit.