Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- China, one of three countries to have successfully launched astronauts into orbit, said it wants the U.S., Russia and other nations to begin crafting a new global treaty to govern the use of outer space.

Chinese defense officials will attend a meeting of the United Nations Outer Space Scientific & Technical Subcommittee in Vienna from Feb. 12 to 23, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, without giving details.

``Space is the common property for humanity,'' Jiang said today at a press briefing in Beijing. ``China is opposed to an arms race in space and we want to work toward having a treaty to govern the peaceful use of space.''

U.S. officials reacted with alarm after China fired a missile at an obsolete Chinese weather satellite on Jan. 11, destroying it. In an October 2006 space policy paper, U.S. President George W. Bush asserted the right to use force against countries that disrupt American satellites.

The U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union completed a treaty on use of outer space in 1967, which has been signed and ratified by 98 countries, including China. That treaty prohibits any nation from putting nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction into space or stationing them on any celestial body.

China, with an annual space budget estimated at $2 billion, has launched three astronauts into orbit around the earth and has announced a plan for a lunar landing in 2020.

To contact the reporter for this story: Zhang Dingmin in Beijing at Dzhang14@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 30, 2007 04:52 EST