China's year-long expedition, costing 1.4 billion yuan (184 million dollars), kicks off a programme that aims to land an unmanned rover on the moon's surface by 2012 and put a man on the moon by about 2020.

The launch of Chang'e I, which will explore and map the moon's surface, came after Japan last month launched its first lunar probe and ahead of a similar mission planned by India for next year.

Chang'e I took off at 6:05 pm (1005 GMT) -- perfect timing for a national television audience that watched it live after repeatedly being told by the government-controlled press about the significance of the event.

President Hu Jintao issued his personal congratulations following the successful launch, according to a brief statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency less than 90 minutes after the take-off.

China has described the lunar orbiter as the third major milestone event for the nation's space programme, after developing rockets and satellites since the 1970s and sending men into orbit in 2003 and 2005.

"Flying to the moon is the nation's long cherished dream," Xinhua said.

In the lead up to the launch, one of the chief scientists in China's moon programme, Ouyang Ziyuan, also pointed to the broader message the mission would send to the Chinese people and the world.

"As lunar exploration embodies our overall national strength, it is very significant for raising our international prestige and our national unity," Ouyang told the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily.

To further drum up Chinese pride, the national anthem and 31 other patriotic songs were uploaded onto the satellite so it could broadcast the music back to China.

In recent years China's space programme has taken huge strides, in parallel with the country's spectacular economic rise.

China successfully launched astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit in 2003, making it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a man in space.

Its third manned space flight is scheduled for late 2008 on a mission that will include three astronauts and China's first ever space walk.

However on September 14, Japan stole a march on China by launching its first lunar orbiter as a key step in putting a man on the moon by 2020.

Although the timeframes for China and Japan to eventually put someone on the moon are similar, some Chinese officials tried to play down the rivalry.

"Japan began its lunar exploration research much earlier than we did, so we have always stressed that with the launch of Chang'e, we don't want to be talking about who is first," top mission official Zhang Jianqi said in the state-run press.

Zhang said China's project engineers were more concerned over whether new technology would perform correctly during the flight, which is named after a character from Chinese mythology who ascended from Earth to live on the moon.

Chang'e I is expected to leave Earth's orbit on October 31, enter lunar orbit on November 5 and transmit its first pictures of the moon back to Earth by the end of November.

According to Rene Oosterlinck, a European Space Agency spokesman, the race to the moon, which also includes a renewed US effort, is aimed at setting up permanent lunar bases as a first step to eventual exploration of Mars.

"The Chinese satellite will mainly be taking three dimensional pictures of the moon surface to see where it will be possible to land in the future to set up a lunar base," Oosterlinck told AFP.

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