China will launch a series of programmes to commemorate admiral Zheng He who commanded seven historic overseas voyages, including one to India about 600 years ago, the state media reported on Wednesday.

The celebrations will run into 2005, and end with a grand memorial conference in July that year. A number of exhibitions, seminars, quiz contests, lectures and summer camps will be organised, Xinhua news agency reported in Beijing. The state-run China Central Television plans to shoot a documentary on Zheng's journeys.

Zheng, a Chinese Muslim who lived between 1371-1431, was originally named Ma He but got his official surname from Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming dynasty.

Between 1405-07, Zheng made his maiden voyage to India. He made another six overseas journeys, including one to East Africa in 1433. He initiated or reaffirmed contacts with some 30 countries and his voyages showcased China's impressive naval power at that time.

Zheng took thousands of officials and sailors, up to 28,000, with the largest fleet numbering over 100 vessels.

The Chinese regard Zheng as an imperial envoy of friendship, rather than an explorer. Unlike European explorers, whose main aim was to find colonies, gold, spices and slaves, Zheng was ordered to convey the emperor's authority, goodwill and gifts to overseas states.

Chinese and Taiwanese experts have suggested the likely motive for Zheng's voyages to Southeast Asia was to look for strategic allies.

Participating at a recent seminar in Shanghai marking the 700th anniversary of Zheng's voyages, the experts held that the originally acknowledged motives for Zheng's voyages - looking for a former emperor and showing off the Ming dynasty's grandness - were not convincing enough.

According to Xin Yuan'ou, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Xie Taixi, secretary-general at Taiwan's 'China Strategy Institute', his voyages were the result of the threat to the Ming dynasty by Central Asia's Timur empire.

In view of this, the third emperor, Zhu Di, sent Zheng to unite countries along the Indian Ocean to jointly resist Timur's expansion plans. Although Timur's sudden death disabled the expansion plans, Zheng continued with the diplomatic mission.