"I think you've certainly seen, given the history of some of the events of manned space flights, that small things can cause very big problems," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in comments about the Chinese test.

US officials said the test involved a missile destroying an ageing Chinese weather satellite at an altitude of some 800 kilometers (500 miles).

Casey said such tests can produce "extensive amounts of space debris" that could damage commercial satellites or "manned space missions" including the International Space Station or US space shuttles.

In addition to the issue of orbiting debris, Washington was particularly concerned the test could signal a possible arms race in space, he said.

"We don't want to see a situation where there is any militarization of space," he said.

The United States protested the test both to China's ambassador in Washington and to the foreign ministry in Beijing and asked for an explanation of exactly what occurred, Casey said.

"We've asked the Chinese to give us some greater details about what they did, why they did it, and explain it in greater detail to us simply because of the concerns that we have about this issue," he said.

China's ambassador to Washington was called in on Tuesday to discuss the issue with the State Department's top non-proliferation official, Undersecretary Robert Joseph, a senior official said.

The Chinese had not as of Friday provided any reply, Casey and White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Casey rejected comparisons of the Chinese test to a US test of an anti-satellite device in 1985, saying that occured in the context of the Cold War and had not been followed up with further tests.

"More importantly, though, I think you need to look at the development of space in those past 22 years," he said.

"Countries throughout the world are dependent on space-based technologies, weather satellites, communication satellites and other devices to be able to conduct modern life as we know it," he said.

"And so, the consequences of any kind of activity like this are significantly greater now than they were at that time," he said.

The website space.com, quoting sources that it did not identify, said the strike against the Chinese weather satellite had created "hundreds of hundreds of pieces" of debris fluttering through low Earth orbit.

Experts said many commercial, military and navigational satellites orbit in the region of 900 kilometers (560 miles), while the maximum altitude of the International Space Station is around 450 kilometers (280 miles).

The danger from debris comes from the enormous speeds at which they travel, which means even very small pieces impact with high energy.

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