BEIJING:COLONEL ZHAI Zhigang had barely closed the hatch inside the capsule after his historic 13-minute space walk high above the earth when thoughts at ground control in Inner Mongolia were turning to the next stage in China's space adventure - getting a man onto the moon.

China has not given an exact timetable for a lunar mission, but the success of Shenzhou VII's voyage has fired up the imagination of the people, who are keen to underline China's growing international status with a huge event like a moon landing.

The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, quoted one official saying it was a definite possibility.

"We still do not have an exact timetable for a manned mission to the moon, but I believe a taikonaut will set foot on the moon in the not too distant future," the official said.

Wang Zhaoyao, spokesman for the manned space programme, who may have been carried away by the rush of emotion following the space walk, said that it was, in fact, "necessary" for China to put a man on the moon. "We believe that as long as we can make further progress in science and technology, we can achieve the dream of a manned space flight to the moon in the near future."

A more likely scenario, however, is that China will first focus on building its version of Spacelab.

The next flight, Shenzhou VIII, will be an unmanned spacecraft and it is expected to take off just months from now.

Then a space lab will then be set up in 2010 with the launch of Shenzhou X, China's next full-crew space journey.