China's lunar probe has successfully entered its final orbit around the moon, a Chinese space official said Wednesday.

Final adjustments were made to the orbit of the probe— called Chang'e 1 after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon— at the end of a two-week journey.

Officials said the probe had entered its final working orbit at an altitude of about 200 kilometres, from where it will explore the moon's surface.

The first photos of the moon should be sent back later this month, officials said. By early next year, the probe will have measured the whole surface of the moon at least once, officials said.

China has sent astronauts into space in the last four years and launched its moon probe about a month after rival Japan did the same.

But officials on Wednesday denied state media reports that China was planning a space station by 2020.

"So far, according to the plans already published, there are no plans for a space station," Li Guoping, spokesman of the China National Space Administration, said at a news conference.

The China Daily newspaper said China's planned space station would be "a small-scale, 20-tonne space workshop," quoting Long Lehao, a leading designer of the Long March 3A rocket that carried the Chang'e 1 into space.

Chinese officials have said previously they wanted to build a space station in the next 10 or 15 years, but the reported target date of 2020 was the first time a schedule had been made public, Long told China Daily.

The report did not say how many people the station would be able to hold. But its weightwould beabout one-tenth that of the International Space Station, which currently has three people on board.

The lunarprobe's launch raised the prospect of a space rivalry between China and Japan, with India possibly joining in if it carries through on a plan to send its own lunar probe into space in April.

But Chinese officials have played down talk of a space race, saying Beijing wants to use its program to work with other countries.

Li said China was willing to participate in the International Space Station, joining the United States, Canada and more than a dozen other countries involved in that project.

However, Washington has so far objected to participation by China because of its Communist government.