BEIJING — China said yesterday it was concerned about U.S. military plans to shoot down a damaged spy satellite that is hurtling toward Earth with 1,000 pounds of toxic fuel.

The U.S. military has said it hopes to smash the satellite as soon as next week — just before it enters Earth's atmosphere — with a single missile fired from a Navy cruiser in the northern Pacific Ocean. CNN reported last week that the Pearl Harbor-based USS Lake Erie was expected to perform the task, firing an SM-3 missile to demolish the 5,000-pound satellite.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao as saying the Chinese government was monitoring the situation and has urged the U.S. to avoid damaging security in outer space and in other countries.

"Relevant departments of China are closely watching the situation and working out preventive measures," Liu said. Xinhua did not elaborate.

Russia also has voiced worries about the U.S. plan to shoot down the damaged satellite, saying it may be a ploy to test America's missile defense system.

The U.S. has insisted the plan is not a test of a program to kill other nations' orbiting communications and intelligence capabilities.

The Bush administration and U.S. military officials have said the bus-sized satellite is carrying a fuel called hydrazine that could injure or even kill people who are near it when it hits the ground.

U.S. diplomats around the world have been instructed to inform governments that the operation is meant to protect people from the satellite's descent and the toxic fuel it is carrying. The diplomats were told to distinguish the upcoming attempt to destroy the satellite from China's much criticized test last year, when it used a missile to destroy a defunct weather satellite.

Left alone, the satellite would probably hit Earth during the first week of March.

The satellite, which carries a secret imaging sensor, was launched in December 2006. It lost power and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward.