The 3,000 poplar seeds brought back after being exposed to space environment are soon to be put into seed breeding boxes in northern-most province of China, according to Guan Siwei, project manager and head of the Langxiang Forestry Bureau in the lesser Hing'an Forestry Zone in Heilongjiang Province.

The seeds, believed to have been mutated in spaceship "Shenzhou IV" which returned to earth on January 5, 2003, are expected to have a higher germination rate and help quicken the growth of poplar by one-third, which would otherwise take 10-15 years by the conventional methods.

Experiments will be carried out in 15,000 hectares reserved for growing trees for industrial use, said Guan Siwei, who is attending the on-going First Session of the 10th National People's Congress.

The 3,000 poplar seeds, weighing 2 grams in total, were exposed to space on China's spaceship "Shenzhou IV" for more than 160 hours starting from December 30, 2002.

China's wood production has been declining since it initiated a natural forest protection project in 1998. China produced 51 million cubic meters of wood in 2002, 8.66 million cubic meters less than in 1998.

China's forest cover was 16.55 percent by the end of 2000, far below the level in the United States and Japan.