China's first experimental spacecraft, part of the country's manned space flight programme, touched down in the central inner Mongolia autonomous region in north China at 01.11 hrs IST Sunday, successfully concluding its first flight, Xinhua news agency said.

The space vehicle was launched with a new model of long march carrier rocket at 0400 hrs IST Saturday from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in northwest China's Gansu province.

The success is a major step toward China's manned space flight cause, an official of China's manned spaceflight programme said, adding China deserves a place in the world in the area of high technology.

The successful launch of the first experimental spacecraft once again demonstrates that China is fully capable of independently mastering the most advanced technology, the unnamed official saidin an obvious reference to allegations that China illegally acquired us space/rocket technology.Based on Sunday's flight, China will conduct more unmanned test flights before putting its astronauts in space, he said.

So far, only the US and Russia had the technology of manned space flight. Before launching their manned spacecraft, the two countries had conducted a series of unmanned test flights in the space.