The United States said China conducted the test earlier this month in which an old Chinese weather satellite was destroyed by a missile.

Analysts said China’s weather satellites would travel at about the same altitude as U.S. spy satellites, so the test represented an indirect threat to U.S. defense systems.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said he was unaware of such a test.

Liu Jianchao told reporters that he couldn’t comment on the reports because he had no knowledge of such a test. He said China supported the peaceful use of space.

Still, officials in Japan and Australia immediately demanded China explain its actions.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who was in New York, said Sydney opposed the test and had called upon Beijing’s ambassador to Australia, Madame Fu Ying, for an explanation.

“Our concern about this is that to have a capacity to shoot down satellites in outer space is not consistent with ... the traditional Chinese position of opposition to the militarization of outer space,” he told reporters.

“So we’ve asked the Chinese for an explanation as to what this may mean,” Downer said, adding that so far Chinese officials, including the ambassador in Canberra, said they are not aware of the incident.

The U.S. Department of Defense would not comment on the test, but other American officials said it raised serious concerns in Washington.

“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,” National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Thursday. “We and other countries have expressed our concern to the Chinese.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo has asked Beijing for an explanation and stressed the importance of the peaceful use of space.

“We must use space peacefully,” he told reporters. “We are asking the Chinese government about the test.”

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso criticized Beijing for failing to give advance notice to Tokyo. He also suggested that Tokyo doubted the test was conducted for “a peaceful use.”

Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Japan’s top government spokesman, suggested that China’s lack of transparency over its military development could trigger suspicions about its motives in the region.

In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman voiced concerns that the debris from the test could strike other satellites orbiting the earth.

“We have concerns about the impact of debris in space and have expressed that concern,” Blair’s official spokesman said, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. He added that “the manner in which this test was conducted is inconsistent with the spirit of China’s statement to the U.N. and other bodies on the military use of space.”

South Korea has also conveyed its legitimate concerns to China, according to the Foreign Ministry.

But Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said he was skeptical about the reported test.

“I’m afraid that it didn’t have an anti-satellite basis. And, maybe, it’s good that it didn’t,” Ivanov said in televised remarks, adding that Russia was against the militarization of space.

A Russian military expert, Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Fateyev, was critical of the test but added that “it shows that Beijing has a strong capability,” ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

The test comes at a sensitive time for Sino-Japanese relations.

Ties between the two had sharply deteriorated in recent years amid disputes over territorial issues, use of maritime resources and interpretations of wartime history.

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