World's largest radio telescope completed in China

China on Sunday hoisted thefinal piece into position on what will be the world's largestradio telescope, which it will use to explore space and help inthe hunt for extraterrestrial life, state media said.

The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope, orFAST, is the size of 20 Canadianfootball fields and has been hewed outof a mountain in the poor southwestern province of Guizhou.

• China will relocate 9,000 people to build world's biggest radio telescope

Scientists will now start debugging and trials of thetelescope, Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the NationalAstronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences,which built the telescope, told the official Xinhua news agency.

"The project has the potential to search for more strangeobjects to better understand the origin of the universe and
boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life," the reportparaphrased Zheng as saying.

The 1.2-billion yuan ($231million) radio telescope would bea global leader for the next one to two decades, Zheng added.

The telescope, which has taken about five years to build, isexpected to begin operations in September.

Advancing China's space programme is a priority for Beijing,with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish
itself as a space power.

China's ambitions include putting a man on the moon by 2036and building a space station, work on which has already begun.

China insists its programme is for peaceful purposes, butthe U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasingspace capabilities, saying it is pursuing activities aimed toprevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.($1 = 5.19yuan)