China looks forward to co-operating with the United States in the space field, and expects personnel exchanges between the two sides will become "normal", a senior aerospace executive said yesterday in Beijing.

Asked to comment on the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) chief Michael Griffin's upcoming trip to China, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp President Zhang Qingwei said China had always welcomed such visits.

He said that in January, a bipartisan congressional delegation visited China,

Delegation member Tom Feeney talked about immediate areas of US space co-operation with China, and reportedly said that future US spacecraft should be able to dock at the space station China is planning.

Griffin said he had accepted an invitation from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to visit China for talks on possible Sino-American space co-operation. The agenda of the trip has not been announced yet.

"We welcome them (US visitors) to take a look over here," Zhang told China Daily.

"But personally, I hope the exchanges will become more reciprocal."

Zhang was referring to the fact that while China's door has been open to US visitors, Chinese aerospace staff have frequently been denied visas in recent years.

Most recently, when deputy chief of CNSA Luo Ge visited the US earlier last month, some members of his delegation were denied visas, according to Zhang.

Chinese space scientists have sometimes had difficulty in attending international space conferences held in the United States, even though the events were not sponsored by the US, Zhang added.

Zhang said he hoped the situation would change.

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