BEIJING, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - China will build a fourth rocket launch centre to help realise its increasing space ambitions, state media reported Monday.

The new centre will be located at Wenchang on the sub-tropical southern island of Hainan, the China Daily newspaper said, citing final plans for the project.

"The 20-square-kilometre (7.7-square-mile) complex will include a command centre, a space launching port, a rocket assembly plant, a rocket launching base and a theme park," it said.

The facility will be used for launching large satellites, space stations and deep space probes, it said.

Manned space missions will continue to be handled by the country's first launch centre at Jiuquan in northwestern Gansu province.

The new spaceport will be China's first near the sea and the first new facility since 1970. Three existing centres are deep in the country's hinterland.

Earlier reports have said the new space centre could be completed by 2010.

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

China's space ambitions have continued to grow and it announced recently that it would launch a joint mission with Russia to Mars in 2009, and plans an unmanned lunar expedition by 2012.