Beijing - China is preparing to launch its Shenzhou VII spacecraft on a mission this month to include the first spacewalk by a Chinese astronaut, state media reported Sunday.

"All the major systems involved in the launching are now in the final preparation," the official Xinhua news agency quoted a spokesman for the space programme as saying.

"The main tests for the spacecraft, the Long March-2F rocket, suits for the spacewalk and a satellite accompanying the flight have also been finished," the unidentified spokesman said.

The Shenzhou VII mission is scheduled to be launched with three astronauts between September 25-30 from the Jiuquan space centre in the north-western province of Gansu, the agency said.

The main crew and a back-up trio completed training and are in good physical and mental shape, it quoted the spokesman as saying.

Propellant was be installed in the spacecraft on Sunday, and the craft would then be joined to the carrier rocket before transfer to the launch pad for final system checks, he said.

In 2003, China's successful Shenzhou V mission made it the third country to launch a manned space mission, after Russia and the United States.

Shenzhou VI carried two astronauts into space in 2005.

Shenzhou VII is the next stage of China's plan to build an integrated ground-space network for space exploration and manned space research, including a permanent space laboratory by 2020. (dpa)