The Purple Mountain Observatory, China's asteroid research center will install a special astronomical telescope for observing celestial bodies closest to the earth.

A spokesman with the observatory said this would enhance observations of asteroids that may endanger the earth and human life.

The one-meter telescope, believed to be the largest of its kind in China, will be jointly developed before 2002 by the observatory and the Nanjing Astronomical Instrument Development Center, both based in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

The observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences was set up in 1934 and has since discovered 34 asteroids. (Xinhua)