"China's position on the missile defense system is clear and consistent, we are not in favor of the missile defense system to be developed by the US," foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.

The system if developed would harm international efforts on disarmament and arms control and would destroy the present global strategic balance, Zhang said.

Much of a recently established strategic partnership between China and Russia has been based on joint opposition to the controversial missile defense system, which if built would violate the US-Russian 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).

Washington has vigorously courted Moscow in an effort to scrap or amend the treaty, but so far the Russians have refused to set aside the treaty even with promises of deep cuts in the US strategic nuclear arsenals.

"I think both China and Russia share the same understanding that the missile defense system is not conducive to international efforts on disarmament and arms control or the global strategic balance," Zhang said.

"We maintain that all sides should conduct serious and conscientious dialogue so as to find a solution that accommodates the security interests of all sides and does not harm the international efforts on disarmament and arms control."

China has also feared that such a system could be deployed in East Asia and has bristled at the idea that the system would protect Taiwan from the mainland's growing missile arsenal.

China maintains that Taiwan is an integral part of the Chinese mainland and has threatened to use force to reunify the rebel island if it should ever declare independence.

Before the most recent test, Pentagon officials had said that a successful test would clear the way for progressively more realistic tests with more decoys and other counter-measures representing more varied classes of threats.

But they stressed this test was aimed at gathering knowledge, not determining whether the system was ready to be deployed.