The program will include new and high-end technologies for the space industry, aviation, ship and marine engineering, nuclear energy and fuel, and information technology for both military and civilian purposes.

Special projects to be carried out include large aircraft, nuclear power stations employing both pressurized water reactors and high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, manned space missions and lunar probes.

The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense passed the outline of the development program of science and technology for national defense for 2006 to 2020 at a meeting yesterday in Qingdao, in east China's Shandong Province.

The program will form a team of world-class experts in the research of key basic and frontier technologies, and a guarantee system will support the work.

The outline says efforts should be made to rev up upgrading and application of industrial technologies, improve the system integration of frontier technologies, and remove bottlenecks in basic technologies, which hinder the development and production of new and high-tech weapons.

It says China will upgrade its defense industry with digital technology.

It calls for enhanced capability to innovate, develop and rapidly supply new-generation weapons over the next 15 years.

The outline says national defense industry will focus on development of:

new and high-tech weapons;

high-tech industries for both military and civilian purposes;

manufacturing technologies for military industries;

basic and frontier technologies for national defense;

guaranteeing technological innovation for national defense.

The outline stresses that China will develop new high-tech weapons to reinforce a mechanized and information-based army.

The next 15 years will also see improvements in new technologies and their industrialization for both military and civilian use.

Between 2006 and 2020, overall planning will be conducted for construction of key scientific and technological laboratories, state laboratories and major-discipline laboratories for national defense.

Several centers for research and application of industrial technologies will be set up, together with basic experiment bases and large, comprehensive scientific research facilities and bases.

Meanwhile, international cooperation will be intensified on scientific and technological research for national defense. Military and civilian institutions will share resources.

Endeavors will also center on protecting intellectual property and industrialization and commercialization of research results, the outline says.

In 2004, China's defense budget was 211.7 billion yuan (US$26.5 billion) or 5.77 percent that of the United States.

This year China has set the annual defense budget at 283.8 billion yuan, up 14.5 percent over last year.