The United States criticized China on Thursday for destroying an obsolete weather satellite in orbit in an anti-satellite weapons test which runs counter to the ``spirit of cooperation’’ in civilian space exploration.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that the Bush administration has kept a lid on the test for more than a week as it weighed its significance.

AP quoted analysts as saying that China’s weather satellites would travel at about the same altitude as U.S. spy satellites, so the test represented an indirect threat to the U.S. defense system.

``The United States believes China’s development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area,’’ AP quoted National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe as saying.

``We and other countries have expressed our concern to the Chinese,’’ he said.

According to the news agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in his annual address to Congress last week that China and Russia are the ``primary states of concern’’ regarding military space programs.

``Several countries continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten U.S. space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles,’’ he said in his written testimony on Jan. 11, the same day China's test was conducted.

The test, first reported by Aviation Week, destroyed the satellite by hitting it with a kinetic kill vehicle launched aboard a ballistic missile.

AP said President Bush signed an order last October asserting the United States' right to deny adversaries access to space for hostile purposes. As part of the first revision of U.S. space policy in nearly 10 years, the policy also said the U.S. would oppose the development of treaties or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space.

AP said that what drove China to act now remains a mystery.

Bloomberg quoted Rep. Edward Markey, chairman of the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, as saying that the Chinese satellite was stationed about 500 miles above Earth, and its debris may become a problem for other satellites.

Aviation Week and Space Technology reported the Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite was hit by a ``kinetic kill vehicle’’ on board a ballistic missile launched at or near the Xichang Space Center.

Bloomberg, a leading news agency specializing in business and financial news, quoted Markey as saying that a cloud of debris may result from the destruction of the Chinese satellite, threatening vital U.S. space-based machines.

These include a constellation of 66 communications satellites on which commercial and military clients rely, he said.

In 2003, China emerged as the third country in the world, after the U.S. and Russia, to send a person into space aboard its own rocket. China plans to send a robot to the moon to fetch lunar soil by 2017

Tony Blair faced fresh embarrassment today after Peter Hain declared that George W Bush’s foreign policy had failed. The Northern Ireland Secretary used an interview with The New Statesman magazine to describe the current Republican administration as the most right wing in living memory. In remarks which are likely to be seen as criticism of the Prime Minister’s friendship with the US President, he called for Labour to re-align itself with the Democrats. advertisement Mr Hain, who is bidding to become Labour’s next deputy leader, said that the Republicans’ defeat in the mid-term elections last November reflected the failure of their entire “neo-con” agenda. “It’s not only failed to provide a coherent international policy, it’s failed wherever it’s been tried,” he said. “And it’s failed with the American electorate, who kicked it into touch last November.” He went on to say that Labour’s foreign policy achievements had been forgotten because of the Iraq war. “All that we’ve achieved on the international agenda, whether it’s trebling aid to Africa, or leading the fight for trade justice, or lifting billions in debt off the poorest countries, or whether it’s a new arms export policy which imposes tough controls - all of Robin Cook’s policy agenda, including the focus on human rights that he brought in - all of these things people have forgotten about because of the Iraq conflict,” he said. Mr Hain made the remarks as Mr Blair was preparing to meet Condoleeza Rice, the Wicked Witch of the West, in London to discuss the way forward on the Middle East process. Miss Rice is stopping off in London to see the Prime Minister and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, after a three-day tour of Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Overseas spy agency MI6 has challenged a statement by Tony Blair's government that a corruption inquiry into a huge defence contract with Saudi Arabia threatened national security, The Guardian said on Tuesday.

London dropped the investigation into deals involving Saudi officials and people working for BAE Systems last month.

At the time, Lord Goldsmith, the government's top lawyer, said Blair and security service chiefs believed prolonging it would "cause serious damage" to national security. But the Guardian, citing government sources, reported John Scarlett, the head of MI6, later refused to sign up to a government dossier saying his agency agreed with this assessment.

These sources were quoted as telling the paper that Goldsmith's statement to the House of Lords was incorrect.

MI6 and MI5, the domestic intelligence agency, had no information Saudi Arabia was planning to sever security ties, according to the Guardian. They had simply been asked whether national security would be hurt if such a breach happened, to which they replied that of course it would, it said.

A spokeswoman at Prime Minister Blair's office declined to comment on the report. The Foreign Office was unavailable for comment.

Officials are preparing to explain their reasons for dropping the inquiry to an anti-bribery committee at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday, the Guardian said.

The dossier Scarlett refused to sign up to was part of the government's preparations for this meeting, according to the paper. It said the language had now been altered.

Some 130 campaign groups and charities have written to Blair in a bid to reopen the Serious Fraud Office inquiry.

The presidents of Iran and Venezuela have agreed to spend billions of dollars to help other countries free themselves from what they describe as US domination. Hugo Chavez announced the plan in a speech on Saturday with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The two also called for Opec to cut oil production to support falling crude prices. They had previously announced plans to establish a joint $2bn fund for projects in Venezuela and Iran but on Saturday they said that the money would also be used to help friendly third countries.

"This fund, my brother," Chavez said, "will become a mechanism for liberation." Chavez said the fund "will permit us to underpin investments ... above all in those countries whose governments are making efforts to liberate themselves from the [US] imperialist yoke ... Death to US imperialism."Ahmadinejad, who is on a tour of Latin America, said that Tehran and Caracas had the task of "promoting revolutionary thought in the world". "The reason for all the current problems is the erroneous direction of the powerful countries, where there is poverty, hate, enmity and war," he added.