Washington said China fired a missile to destroy an orbiting weather satellite last week, making it the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to shoot down anything in space.

The successful test means China, which declined to comment, could now theoretically shoot down spy satellites operated by other nations.

The ageing weather satellite was hit on January 11 US time and may have left considerable debris behind. The impact reported occurred more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth, high enough to hit orbiting satellites.

Japan, which has long been concerned at China's rapidly growing military spending, joined the United States in condemning the test.

"From the view of the peaceful use of space and international security, we naturally have concerns about it," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the government spokesman, told a news conference.

The test was first reported by US magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology and confirmed by the White House.

"We are not aware of that test. Usually the media writes stories on hearsay evidence, we don't have time to verify such stories," a spokesman with the Chinese defence ministry's foreign affairs department told AFP.

But Japan said China told it through diplomatic channels that its intentions were peaceful.

"China consistently uses space only for peaceful purposes," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso quoted the Chinese foreign ministry as saying, but he was also critical of the test.

"We did not receive any notification beforehand," Aso told reporters.

The way China handled the test is "questionable from the viewpoint of peaceful use (of space) because there could be concerns of scattered debris," he said.

The test would be the world's first since the 1980s, when the United States and Soviet Union both destroyed satellites in space. The two superpowers ceased the tests largely because of the problem of debris.

But US President George W. Bush's administration has opposed international calls to end such tests, saying in a policy paper last fall that the United States had the right to "freedom of action" in space.

China had been a leading critic of Washington's policy on the military use of space, raising the possibility that the satellite-killer test was a calculated diplomatic strategy.

The White House was quick to condemn the test and said other countries inclduing Britain and South Korea would also voice concern.

"The United States believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," said national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Australia's foreign ministry meanwhile summoned China's ambassador.

"Australia sought an explanation from the Chinese government about the nature of the incident and China's assessment of the danger posed by the debris created by that incident," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in Canberra.

Aviation Week said the missile was fired from the Xichang space center in central Sichuan province and had destroyed a Chinese weather satellite that was launched in 1999.

China, which in 2003 became the third country to carry out a manned space mission, can now theoretically shoot down spy satellites operated by the United States, Japan, Russia, Israel and Europe, the magazine said.

The test "could also have left considerable space debris in an orbit used by many different satellites," it said.

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