Beijing - Engineers on Saturday moved the assembled carrier rocket and Shenzhou VII spacecraft toward a launch pad for China's next manned space mission, which was scheduled to be launched next week, state media reported.

The Shenzhou VII, attached to a Long March-2F carrier rocket, was rolled along a 1,500-metre railway from the assembly plant to the launch pad, the semi-official China News Service said.

The move to the launch pad at the Jiuquan space centre in the north-western province of Gansu began around 1:30 pm (0530 GMT) and would take about two and a half hours, the agency said.

The mission is to include China's first spacewalk and was scheduled for launch at 9:10 pm on Thursday if weather permits with a planned launch window until September 
30, other state media reports said.

The spacecraft was joined to the carrier rocket Thursday and supplies - including water, food and medicine - were placed on board for the three astronauts Friday, the official China Daily newspaper said.

Tourism was suspended at the Jiuquan space centre for "security and confidentiality" during the mission, the newspaper said.

But the Hong Kong-based Wenhui Bao newspaper reported that a small number of tickets would be sold for 15,000 yuan (2,190 dollars) each to allow a few tourists to watch the launch.

Reports last week said engineers had completed all the main tests for the spacecraft, the carrier rocket, the suits for the spacewalk and a satellite accompanying the flight.

The main crew and a backup trio completed training and were in good physical and mental shape, the official Xinhua news agency quoted a spokesman as saying.

The government said astronaut Zhai Zhigang was chosen to make the spacewalk.

The other two crew members were named as Liu Boming, who is to assist Zhai with leaving and re-entering the spacecraft, and Jing Haiping.

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)