New Web Software a Challenge to Microsoft

NEW YORK - A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate and better manage their online photos and e-mail.

Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers.




And that could bode ill for Microsoft Corp. and its flagship Office suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets and other applications.

The threat comes in large part from Ajax, a set of Web development tools that speeds up Web applications by summoning snippets of data as needed instead of pulling entire Web pages over and over.

"It definitely supports a Microsoft exit strategy," said Alexei White, a product manager at Ajax developer eBusiness Applications Ltd. "I don't think it can be a full replacement, but you could provide scaled-down alternatives to most Office products that will be sufficient for some users."

Ironically, Microsoft invented Ajax in the late 90s and has used it for years to power an online version of its popular Outlook e-mail program.

Ajax's resurgence in recent months is thanks partly to its innovative use by Google Inc. to fundamentally change online mapping. Before, maps were static: Click on a left arrow, wait a few seconds as the Web page reloads and see the map shift slightly to the left. Repeat. Repeat again.

"It's slow. It's frustrating," said frequent map user Fred Wagner, a petroleum engineer in Houston. "We're all getting spoiled with wanting things to happen."

So he sticks with Google Maps these days. There, he can drag the map over any which way and watch new areas fill in instantly. He can zoom in quickly using an Ajax slider.

No more World Wide Wait.

"Everybody went, `Ooooh, how did they do that?'" said Steve Yen, who runs a company developing an Ajax spreadsheet called Num Sum. "It turns out the technology's been there for awhile."

Jesse James Garrett, an Adaptive Path LLC usability strategist who publicly coined the term `Ajax' 10 days after Google Maps launched in February, said such examples "convinced a lot of Web designers to take another look at something they may have previously dismissed as experimental."

Also contributing are faster Internet connections, more powerful computers and better browsers able to handle Ajax, which is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.

Consider e-mail.

Until recently, Web mail meant sending forms back and forth online. Check an item to delete and hit a button. A remote mail server receives instructions and responds with an entirely new page, which is missing only the one deleted item.

Enter Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and an interface it is testing using technology from an Ajax pioneer it bought, Oddpost. Delete an item this time, and Ajax reconfigures the page immediately without waiting for a response.

Open a message to read, and the browser fetches only the message's body — it already has the subject line and other header information and doesn't have to waste time duplicating that data.

Yahoo also is developing an Ajax tool that instantly updates flight options as travelers narrow their choices of airports, airlines and travel times.

This summer, Time Warner Inc.'s America Online Inc. started using Ajax to let users rearrange, display and switch photo albums with fewer clicks.

And last week, Dow Jones & Co.'s MarketWatch began embedding news articles with stock quotes updated several times a second, blinking green and red as prices fluctuate.

"A Web page takes longer to load than that," said Jamie Thingelstad, MarketWatch's chief technology officer. "Your computer would just be hung."

Microsoft, which uses Ajax in a new map offering and an upcoming Hotmail upgrade, is even starting to build new tools to promote Ajax development — even as it pushes a next-generation alternative.

The alternative technology, known as XAML, will permit even richer applications over browsers. Alas, unlike Ajax, it will run only on Microsoft's Windows computers — no Macs, no
Linux.

Startups, meantime, are embracing Ajax for Office-like tools. Such applications won't replace Office but could find a niche — parents collaborating in a soccer league could jointly update a Num Sum spreadsheet with scores, while users too poor to buy Office or students always on the go could compose a letter from anywhere using Writely word processor.

Scott Guthrie, who oversees the Microsoft Ajax tools called Atlas, believes Ajax has a future but not one at odds with Microsoft's.

"Ultimately when you want to write a word processing document or manage a large spreadsheet, you are going to want the capabilities ... that are very difficult to provide on the Web today," Guthrie said.

Computer-intensive applications like Adobe Systems Inc.'s Photoshop image editor and high-end games won't come to browsers anytime soon.

Even Google had to create desktop mapping software, called Google Earth and requiring a download, to permit 3-D and advanced features.

"Ajax cannot do everything," said Bret Taylor, who oversees Google's mapping products. "Web applications have a way to go."

Other limitations are intentional. For security reasons, a browser cannot seamlessly access files or other programs on a computer. And, of course, Web applications require a persistent Internet connection — making work difficult on airplanes.

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen also worries that loss of productivity — a minute here, a minute there, multiplied by thousands of employees — will offset any savings in installation costs.

"When you do a lot of transactions, you want something that's optimized for the transaction, not something optimized for information browsing," he said.

Among other criticisms, developer tools for Ajax aren't as mature as those for one of its chief rivals, Macromedia Inc.'s Flash. And many Ajax programs don't work well beyond Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox browsers.

Yet Web-based applications are increasingly appealing at a time separate computers for home, work and travel are common and people get used to sharing calendars and other data with friends and relatives.

Ajax can make those experiences richer.

"There's a lot of power sitting on that Web browser ... that people are just tapping into," said White of eBusiness Applications. Web developers "are beginning to push its limits in terms of creative uses and new applications."

Rain Pounds Key West As Wilma Nears Fla.

KEY WEST, Fla. - Hurricane Wilma accelerated Sunday toward Florida and got stronger along the way, threatening the storm-beleaguered state with 115-mph winds and raising concerns about thousands of Keys residents who defied mandatory evacuation orders.

Forecasters said Wilma could intensify as it approached Florida, and they were correct: The storm regained Category 3 status Sunday evening, in large part because the system hadn't been affected by wind shear officials hoped would impede Wilma's path and reduce its intensity.

Landfall was expected by daybreak, probably near the state's southwest corner. Yet with the strongest winds on the storm's right side, officials feared a strong storm surge could cause widespread problems in the Keys. "They're going to be in deep trouble," warned Billy Wagner, the senior Monroe County emergency management director.

Wilma's outer bands of gusty winds and rain began lashing the Keys and southwest Florida on Sunday night. At least three tornadoes were reported in the southern half of the state, including one not far from the
Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. And 31 counties — covering more than half the state's population — were under a tornado watch that extended through Monday morning.

Hurricane Wilma Tears Into Mexican Resorts

CANCUN, Mexico - Hurricane Wilma tore into Mexico's resort-studded Caribbean coastline on Friday with torrential rains and shrieking winds, filling streets with water, shattered glass and debris as thousands of tourists hunkered down in hotel ballrooms and emergency shelters.

Packing winds of 140 mph, the storm shattered windows and downed trees that crushed cars on the island of Cozumel, a popular cruise-ship stop. Pay phones jutted from floodwaters in the famed hotel zone.

The fearsome Category 4 storm, which killed 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica, was expected to pummel the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula for two days, sparking fears of catastrophic damage. It is forecast to sideswipe Cuba before bearing down on Florida on Monday.

"Tin roofing is flying through the air everywhere. Palm trees are falling down. Signs are in the air and cables are snapping," Julio Torres told The Associated Press by telephone from the Red Cross office in Cozumel.

"Not even emergency vehicles have been able to go out on the streets, because the winds are too strong."

Officials said damage assessment teams couldn't reach Cozumel until late Saturday, at the earliest. But Quintana Roo Gov. Felix Gonzalez Cantu, whose state includes Cancun, said the storm had caused "great destruction."

The
National Hurricane Center in Miami said Wilma officially made landfall about 3:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. EDT), with the center of the storm's eye hitting Cozumel. Seven hours later, the storm finally reached the Yucatan Peninsula, coming ashore between Playa del Carmen and Puerto Morelos, about 11 miles from Cozumel.

The wind bent palm trees and the surf washed away tiki huts on hotel beaches. Power was cut early Friday to most parts of Cancun — a standard safety precaution.

Shop windows were shattered, cars were crushed under fallen trees and pay phones jutted from waist-deep floodwaters in the famed hotel zone.

"I never in my life wanted to live through something like this," said cook Guadalupe Santiago, 27, as howling winds shattered windows and rocked the hotel where she had taken shelter. "There are no words" to describe it, she said.

Officials loaded more than 1,000 people into buses and vans after a downtown cultural center being used as a temporary shelter suddenly became uninhabitable, Cancun Red Cross director Ricardo Portugal said without elaborating.

At the same time, Wilma's outer bands pounded western Cuba, where the government evacuated nearly 370,000 people. Forecasters said Wilma could bring more than 3 feet of rain to parts of Cuba.

Waves of up to 21 feet crashed on the extreme westernmost tip of Cuba and heavy rains cut off several small communities. About 7,000 residents were evacuated from the coastal fishing village of La Coloma in Cuba's southern Pinar del Rio province.

"We thought we'd be spending a lot less time here," Maria Elena Torre said at a shelter set up inside a Cuban boarding school. "Now we have no idea how long we'll be here."

Civil defense official Adolfo Nilo Moreno said the 725 evacuees at the school were likely to remain in place until Tuesday or Wednesday.

"Luckily, we have enough food for four months," primarily rice, chicken, bread and milk, he said

Cancun Evacuates As Wilma Grows, Nears

CANCUN, Mexico - Desperate tourists jockeyed for flights out of Cancun on Thursday as officials hauled thousands of visitors from luxury hotels to emergency shelters ahead of Hurricane Wilma, which forecasters said was growing stronger. Cuba evacuated more than 200,000 people.

The hurricane, which killed at least 13 people in the Caribbean, was expected to hit Cancun and sideswipe Cuba early Friday. Forecasters said it would then swing around to the northeast and charge Sunday at hurricane-weary Florida, where Gov.
Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency.

Briefly the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, Wilma remained a dangerous Category 4 hurricane and was gaining strength. Its 240 150 mph winds made it more powerful than Hurricane Katrina at the time it plowed into the U.S. Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, killing more than 1,200 people.

The
National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm's wobbly center was roughly 135 miles southeast of Cozumel, a popular vacation island where the storm was likely to hit first before heading to Cancun. While many were evacuated from the island, a few had stayed.

"This is getting very powerful, very threatening," Mexican President
Vicente Fox said. Hundreds of schools in the Yucatan peninsula were ordered closed Thursday and Friday, and many were turned into shelters.

The Cancun airport was packed Thursday. Lines of hundreds waiting for flights wound past queues of dozens seeking rental cars, taxis or automatic teller machines.

Some airlines had already started canceling flights by midday.

A canceled U.S. Airways flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sending Matt Williams and his friend Jeff Davidson, both of Westfield, N.J., back to their hotel in Playa del Carmen south of Cancun. There, they faced a night in a ballroom-turned-emergency-shelter.



"You see the lines. I don't want to stand there for two hours and then decide what to do," said Williams, 26.

Increasingly high winds bent palm trees and strong waves gobbled Cancun's white-sand beaches. Officials loaded tourists onto buses after rousting them out of a string of luxury hotels lining the precarious strip between the Caribbean and the Nichupte Lagoon. By Thursday afternoon, the normally busy tourist zone was deserted.

Some, like 30-year-old Carlos Porta of Barcelona, Spain, were handed plastic bags with a pillow and blanket.

"From a luxury hotel to a shelter. It makes you angry. But what can you do?" he said. "It's just bad luck."

Mayor Francisco Antonio Alor said 20,000 tourists remained in the city Thursday, down from 35,000 the day before. He said he hoped most would be able to fly out on charters, but about 270 shelters in the area were being readied for those who were stuck.

"It's important that the people understand they should leave for their own security," he said. "It is important that they understand the situation is very dangerous."

Early Wednesday, Wilma became the most intense hurricane recorded in the Atlantic. The storm's 882 millibars of pressure broke the record low of 888 set by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Lower pressure brings faster winds.

Quintana Roo state officials urged the evacuation of nearby islands, and ferries carried throngs to the mainland. But not all agreed to flee.

Asked by telephone if she was leaving Cozumel's Hotel Aguilar where she works, Maite Soberanis replied: "Not for anything. We're in the center of the island. We're protected. We are very secure."

In Cuba, whose tip is just 220 130 miles east of Cancun, civil defense officials said 220,000 people had been evacuated by midday Thursday, most from low-lying areas in the island's west.

Another 14,500 students at boarding schools in rural Havana Province surrounding the nation's capital were sent home to their families.

"We do what is necessary to prevent any problems," said Yahany Canoua, 6 months pregnant as she was waiting to board an evacuation bus in La Colma, a fishing village on Cuba's southwestern coast. Evacuees crowded the buses with children, pet dogs and plastic bags of food.

With Florida the following target, Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency.

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said Wilma's slowing pace could drag the storm down to a Category 3 or less before it hits Florida's southwest coast Sunday.

Officials on Wednesday began clearing tourists out of the exposed Florida Keys, but postponed evacuation of residents until at least Friday.

Across Florida's southwest coast, people put up shutters, bought canned goods and bottled water and waited in ever-growing lines at gas stations.

Starting with its early stages as a tropical depression over the weekend, Wilma has caused floods and landslides that killed at least 12 people in Haiti and one in Jamaica, according to officials there.

Honduras, raked by the storm's outer bands on Wednesday, escaped with no reports of significant damage, according to Juan Jose Reyes, spokesman for the national emergency committee.

In Belize, a nation south of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, officials canceled cruise ship visits and tourists were evacuated from islands offshore.

A few miles south of Cancun in Playa del Carmen, executives at the Occidental Grand Flamenco Xcaret gathered customers on Wednesday evening to warn that they might have to be moved to a shelter at the hotel convention center.

Tourists, many clutching drinks and still wearing swimming trunks or suits, groaned audibly when they were told that bars would be closed and smoking banned in the shelters.

Publishers sue Google over copyright dispute

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Five major publishers filed suit against Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) on Wednesday, seeking to block plans to scan copyrighted works without permission and derail Google's push to make many of the world's great books searchable online.

The complaint, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, names as plaintiffs McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. (NYSE:MHP - news), Pearson Plc's (PSON.L) Pearson Education and Penguin Group (USA) units, Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE:VIAB - news) Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons Inc. (NYSE:JWA - news).

The suit seeks a declaration that Google infringes on the publishers' copyrights when the Web search leader scans entire books without permission of copyright owners.

"If Google can make...copies, then anyone can," Patricia Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, said in a phone interview. "Anybody could go into a library and start making digital copies of anything," she said.

Legal experts say the dispute between Google and the publishing industry is shaping up as a new front in the battle over digital duplication of media, including music, movies and now books.

At issue are rights of copyright holders versus the public's "fair use" interest in being free to use limited portions of books for commentary or review, for what resembles a kind of full-text, searchable card catalog, analysts say.

"Creating an easy-to-use index of books is fair use under copyright law and supports the purpose of copyright: to increase the awareness and sales of books, directly benefiting copyright holders," said David Drummond, Google's attorney.

"This short-sighted attempt to block Google Print works counter to the interests of not just the world's readers, but also the world's authors and publishers," the general counsel said.

The Association of American Publishers, which orchestrated the lawsuit against Google, said in a statement that it took the action after lengthy talks broke down last week over the copyright implications of the Google Print Library Project.

The publishers' legal action aims to keep Google from setting a precedent that would open the door for anyone to digitally duplicate books and use them as they please, said Schroeder, a former U.S. congresswoman from Colorado.

In September, the Authors Guild and U.S. writers Herbert Mitgang, Betty Miles and Daniel Hoffman filed a separate lawsuit against Google that made similar allegations.

The Authors Guild filing is a class-action lawsuit that seeks damages. The new suit seeks a declaratory judgment that Google is committing copyright infringement by scanning books.

Google, which is working with five of the world's great libraries to digitize their collections, stopped scanning copyrighted books in August in the face of a growing outcry from publishers. But it plans to resume doing so next month.

Google's plan to have libraries scan the full text of books goes far beyond the analogy of creating a digital version of a card catalog, Schroeder added. "If Google wants a card catalog they can scan the book's front page for full bibliographic data."

Supporters of the Google Print project say the scanning of the full text of the books is necessary to create a searchable catalog of the books located within the five libraries' collections. Google says it has no plans to make full copies of copyrighted works available without their owners' permission.

"We haven't changed our position in support of the project," said James Hilton, interim head of the university library at the University of Michigan. "Users of Google Print will see a snippet of a few lines of text."

"They will see information about how to find an in-copyright work, either through a bookstore, a publisher or (the closest) library," Hilton said. But the full text will not be available online," he stressed.

Google operates a parallel program with major academic, technical and trade publishers to allow readers to search the text of copyrighted books on publisher-controlled Web pages that show several pages of adjoining text and feature links to publisher and other retail outlets for purchasing the books.

Cisco adds security to switches, wireless devices

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news) is adding security features to its network switches and wireless products, in the networking gear maker's latest push to sell software to help corporations combat spyware, worms and viruses.

Cisco already sells security software for its routers, which allows businesses to add a layer of security to their Web-based networks, which are often used by far-flung workforces. On Monday, Cisco said it is now selling the software for its switches, which companies often use in simpler local area networks within their own buildings.

The expansion of the security features to business' internal networks also includes wireless access points, which corporations are increasingly installing on their campuses.

The software is designed to protect corporations from computers and mobile devices which may have been infected through use outside of the office, as well as from outside attacks against the network itself.

The software, which Cisco sells under the brand name Network Admission Control, has proven to be a popular add-on for Cisco's corporate clients, who are wrestling with a wide range of security threats. The technology has also allowed Cisco to expand into the lucrative area of security software.

The market for network security software and appliances will reach $4.3 billion by the end of 2005 and could grow to $6.3 billion by 2009, according to the Synergy Research Group in Scottsdale, Ariz. Overall security spending will compose 7.9 percent of the U.S. IT budget in 2005, or $59.6 billion, according to Forrester Research Inc. (Nasdaq:FORR - news) in Cambridge, Mass.

This growth is being spurred by the constant assault on corporate and home networks by worms, viruses and other harmful programs.

"I've seen a big increase over the year in terms of attention paid to it by security managers and CIOs to this problem," said Gregg Moskowitz, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group.

Cisco's software is designed to be compatible with devices that do not contain Cisco's own verification system, known as the Cisco Trust Agent. This is important for companies that open up their networks to deal with outside business partners, such as suppliers or contractors, who might be running security software from other vendors, said Bob Gleichauf, chief technology officer in Cisco's Security and Technologies Group.

Cisco's focus on network security pits it against traditional rival Juniper Networks Inc, as well as Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), Internet Security Systems Inc (Nasdaq:ISSX - news). and McAfee Inc (NYSE:MFE - news).

Cisco officials declined to say how much revenue and profit it expects from its network security business.

Cisco shares were down 7 cents, or 0.41 percent, in after-hours INET trading.

Oil prices to hurt - Greenspan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Skyrocketing energy prices will weigh on global growth but will likely exact a much smaller toll than surging oil prices did in the 1970s, U.S.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Monday.

"Although the global economic expansion appears to have been on a reasonably firm path through the summer months, the recent surge in energy prices will undoubtedly be a drag from now on," Greenspan said in remarks prepared for delivery in Tokyo to a group of Japanese businessman on Tuesday morning local time.

"The effect of the current surge in oil prices, though noticeable, is likely to prove significantly less consequential to economic growth and inflation than the surge in the 1970s," he said.

Greenspan noted that oil prices remained below their inflation-adjusted peak of 1981 and said the world's economy had grown more energy-efficient in recent decades.

A text of his speech, which did not address the outlook for U.S. monetary policy, was made available in Washington.

U.S. crude oil prices hit a record high of $70.85 a barrel in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast on August 29, shuttering much of the region's oil-producing and refining capacity. Prices have moved down since and settled at $64.36 a barrel on Monday.

However, Greenspan noted distant oil futures prices had moved up close to current spot prices and said that suggested markets did not expect oil production outside of oil-producing
OPEC countries to be adequate to meet rising world demand.

The Fed chief said OPEC and other developing nations appeared to see little benefit of investing in additional production capacity, citing the "significant proportion" of oil revenue invested in financial assets as evidence.

He also issued a warning on refining capacity.

"Besides feared shortfalls in crude oil capacity, the status of world refining capacity has become worrisome as well," Greenspan said, saying oil production had risen faster than refining capacity for a decade.

"A continuing of this trend would soon make lack of refining capacity the binding constrain on growth in oil use," he said.

But, as he has in the past, Greenspan said market prices were providing the signals that could shift economic behavior in a way that would bring better balance to supply and demand.

"The incentives to alter oil consumption provided by market prices eventually resolved even the most seemingly insurmountable difficulties posed by inadequate supply outside the OPEC cartel," he said.

Greenspan said the ratio of U.S. oil consumption to its gross domestic product had fallen by half since 1973, although the pace at which it was dropping had slowed with the relatively lower oil prices after 1985.

"With real energy prices again on the rise, more-rapid decreases in the intensity of energy use in the years ahead seem virtually inevitable," he said.

He said the U.S. trend toward a less oil-intensive industrial sector and greater energy conservation in recent decades has "likely intensified of late with the sharp, recent increases in oil prices" and a drop in U.S. gasoline consumption in recent weeks was likely due to higher prices.

Chinese Space Capsule Returns to Earth

BEIJING - Two astronauts on China's second manned space flight landed before dawn Monday, shown live on state television as they emerged from their capsule smiling and waving at the end of a five-day mission meant to burnish China's global standing and rouse public support for its communist leaders.

Astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng were "in good health" after the Shenzhou 6 capsule touched down by parachute at 4:32 a.m. local time in China's northern grasslands, just a half-mile from its target, the official Xinhua News Agency said. They were met by crews who rushed to the site in helicopters and off-road vehicles.

State television showed the astronauts climbing out of their kettle-shaped capsule with the help of two technicians and clambering down a ladder in the predawn darkness. They smiled, waved to cheering members of the ground crew, accepted bouquets of flowers and sat in a pair of metal chairs beside the capsule.

"I want to thank the people for their love and care. Thank you very much," Fei said.

Fei and Nie blasted off Wednesday from a base in China's desert northwest, almost exactly two years after the first Chinese manned space flight made this only the third country to send a human into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States.

In contrast to this week's mission, China's first manned space mission was shrouded in secrecy, with none of it broadcast live, a decision that blunted the effort's propaganda value.

Communist leaders apparently hope the greater openness will stir patriotic pride, shoring up their standing at a time of public frustration at corruption, wrenching economic change and a growing gap between the country's rich and poor.

The country's No. 2 leader, Wu Bangguo, who watched the landing from the Beijing mission control center, declared the flight a success.

"This will further improve the country's international status and national strength, and will help to mobilize its people to rally around the Communist Party and work harder for the future of the country," Wu said in a brief speech to technicians. State media showed playful scenes of Fei and Nie in orbit, turning somersaults and setting morsels of food floating in zero gravity. On Monday, state television showed technicians at the Beijing control center, once a closely guarded secret. The technicians displayed no reaction when an announcer said the capsule had landed but broke into cheers after word came that the astronauts were safe. After a snack of noodles, tea and chocolate, Fei and Nie were flown by helicopter to a local airport and boarded a flight to Beijing, where they were greeted on the tarmac by Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan. They were given bouquets of flowers by two boys and two girls as military officers applauded. Fellow members of the astronaut corps hugged them. A commentator on state television quoted one astronaut as saying the first thing he wanted was a hot shower, a steak and a glass of red wine. The two astronauts received a heroes' welcome in Beijing, riding in an open car in a nationally televised parade through a military base past cheering soldiers. Thousands of soldiers and groups of schoolchildren lined the route, waving Chinese flags and balloons.

Shenzhou 6 flew 2 million miles in 115 hours and 32 minutes in space, Xinhua said. China said the five-day flight cost $110 million, and announced that it hopes to conduct a space walk in 2007.

The mission was substantially longer and more complex than the 2003 flight, when astronaut Yang Liwei orbited for 21 1/2 hours before his capsule landed by parachute.

Chinese leaders have defended the space program's expense, saying it will help to drive economic and technological development.

The government says the manned space program has cost $2.3 billion to date — a fraction of the budget of its American counterpart.

The government did not disclose the planned length of the Shenzhou 6 flight in advance or details of the astronauts' mission.

Fei and Nie will be in isolation for observation for 14 days after the mission, but family members will be allowed to visit, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said.

The two astronauts are both military men, former fight pilots and Communist Party members.

China has had a rocketry program since the 1950s and launched its first satellite into orbit in 1970. Its commercial aerospace agency regularly boosts satellites into orbit for foreign customers. The manned space program was inaugurated in 1992.

The Shenzhou 6 is a modified version of Russia's Soyuz capsule and China bought Russian technology for spacesuits, life-support systems and other equipment, but space officials have said all the items launched into orbit were Chinese-made.

The newspaper Beijing News said Nie and Fei would undergo 40 minutes of medical checkups after landing.

"After several days of flying in space, the astronauts may look wan and sallow, so medical staff will put makeup on them to make them look ruddy," the newspaper said.