State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that his government, through a diplomatic cable it is distributing, aims "to reassure nations around the world as to the nature of what we're trying to do."

Washington says a US warship will fire a surface-to-air missile at the satellite at a specific point in its orbit that ensures any Earthbound debris will splash into the ocean.

It denies the shoot down aims at protecting the satellite's technological secrets or at demonstrating US anti-satellite capability.

The US government, McCormack continued, seeks to "further reassure them (nations) that this is not intended in any way as a statement regarding treaty obligations with anti-satellite weapons."

And it also explains, "if the question does arise, how this particular action is quite different in our view than any actions that for example that the Chinese have taken in testing an anti-satellite weapon," he said.

He said the Chinese mission in January last year "was designed specifically as a test against the satellite, the ability to kill the satellite," while the US mission is "an attempt to try to protect populations on the ground."

The US satellite is orbiting at a lower altitude than the one in which China's was shot down and which left debris that can "potentially affect the ability to put other satellites or other objects in that orbit," he said.

China used a ballistic missile to intercept and destroy one of its own ageing weather satellites in low Earth orbit on January 11 last year in a test that demonstrated the vulnerability of US satellites.

Senior US military officials have said the test was a wake-up call and that China will be able to disrupt US military communications in a conflict within three years.

US officials have said Chinese officials responded to US questions about the test with bland assurances that it was not hostile and posed no threat.

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