Chinese officials have denied U.S. accusations that China's progress in space exploration is partly owed to espionage.

A report Wednesday by the U.S. Defense and State departments recommended loosening U.S. export controls on items used to build satellites and other relevant equipment but suggested maintaining or tightening controls on exports to particular countries such as China and Iran, and accused China of stealing space technology.

"China deeply regrets the relevant report from the U.S. administration, and is firmly against the groundless accusation made against China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told China's state-run news agency Xinhua.

"The report mistakenly insisted on the two-decade-old satellite export restrictions against China, which was against the consensus reached between the two heads of state on enhancing space cooperation," Liu said.

China's achievements in space exploration are the result of hard pioneering work, innovation and diligence of the Chinese people, he said.

'Chinese' hackers deface Philippine website
Manila (AFP) April 20, 2012 - Hackers claiming to come from China defaced the website of the Philippines' top university on Friday to assert their country's claim over the hotly disputed South China Sea, the government said.

The foreign department, which has been leading the government's response over its increasingly tense rift with China, immediately called for an investigation into the attack on the University of the Philippines website.

A screenshot of the defaced website, www.up.edu.ph, showed a map with Chinese script that highlighted islands in the South China Sea that are claimed by the Philippines and China.

"We come from China! Huangyan Island is Ours," the map's caption read.

Huangyan is the Chinese name for the Scarborough Shoal, where the two countries have had vessels stationed for nearly two weeks in a standoff to assert their rival claims to the area.

Foreign department spokesman Raul Hernandez suggested the hacking could be linked to the standoff.

"These computer hacking(s) are sometimes... done by some people who are passionately affected and involved in the discussion," he told reporters.

"There has to be an investigation first to find out who exactly did this."

The university temporarily shut the site down after the attack was detected on Friday, Jason Chao, network engineer of the school's computer centre, told AFP.

"We're in the process of restoring the site, but first we have to make sure that this will not happen again," he said.