Griffin began his tour Sunday at the Chinese Academy of Space Technology where he met its president, Yuan Jiayun. Later in the day Sun Laiyan, the head of the China National Space Administration, got together with the American for discussions about each country's plans for further space exploration.

"My goal is to become acquainted with my counterparts in China and to understand their goals for space exploration," Griffin said in a statement by NASA.

"Generally speaking the administrator is coming here to meet his counterpart and to try to understand China and to get to know the space program here," added NASA spokeswoman Milissa Mathews. "So it is really an introductory kind of meeting."

On Monday, Griffin is scheduled to meet with China's minister of science and technology and to deliver a speech to the Chinese Academy of Sciences before leaving Tuesday for Shanghai. He will return to the U.S. from Shanghai on Thursday.

China entered the exclusive rank of top space nations in 2003 when it sent up its first manned mission, joining the United States and Russia.

In 2005 it launched a second orbiting mission with two astronauts, and also hopes to send an unmanned probe to the moon by 2010.

China spends 500 million U.S. dollars a year on its space programs, according to official figures. NASA's proposed budget for 2007 is nearly 17 billion dollars.

NASA Administrator Says Visit To China Only A First Date
Beijing (VOA) Sep 26 - The visit by Michael Griffin, the top official of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, represents a turning point in Washington's attitude toward China's space program. The United States has been reluctant to cooperate with China's secretive, military-based space efforts.

Griffin told reporters Monday that NASA is still unable to cooperate with the military side of China's space efforts. But he said his visit is a step toward lessening the distance between the two countries on space cooperation.

Asked if he had gotten much access to the Chinese agency's operations, Griffin said he did not.

But, he says, his expectations were limited from the start.

"This is a get-acquainted visit. This is an exploratory visit," he explained. " This is a first date, if you will. We're just (on) an exploratory visit."

Griffin said he and Chinese officials had agreed to hold discussions at least once a year. The two sides are also looking at setting up a working group to share information on earth science research, climate studies, and scientific missions, among other things.

China has in recent years accelerated its space exploration efforts. In 2003, it became the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a human in orbit. The second Chinese manned space flight took place last October.

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