BEIJING, May 26 (AFP) - China is gearing up to test an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of more than 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) this year, military sources said here Wednesday. Preparations have already started to test the sea-to-surface Julang-2 (JL-2) missile in the coming months, they said. The relevation comes after the publication Tuesday of a US congressional report which alleged that China was developing three new types of intercontinental mobile missiles, with the aid of stolen US state-of-the-art technology. The JL-2 is the successor to the JL-1 sucessfully tested in the 1980s, first from a classically fuelled submarine then from the Xia, the Chinese navy's only nuclear-fuelled submarine. The specialist magzine Jane's said the first successful test of the JL-1 from the Xia was in September 1988. China is hoping the JL-2 will be operational from next year, but it has not yet been succesfully tested from the Xia, the foreign military expert said, requesting to remain anonymous. It would carry either one warhead of 2.5 megatonnes or three 90 kilotonnes warheads. The Cox report published in the United States said China had systematically stolen US military secrets since the 1970s, particularly those linked to the production of nuclear missiles. According to the report stolen US technology allowed China to develop small nuclear warheads that can be used on three new types of highly mobile intercontinental ballistic missile systems which are capable of reaching the west coast of the United States. China Wednesday denounced the report saying it was slanderous and absurd. But among the two surface-to-surface ballistic missiles highlighted in the Cox report is the DF-31 which reliable sources here said would also be tested before the end of the year and deployed from 2002. According to information in the Japanese press, the DF-31 was first tested in May 1995 in the northern province of Shanxi. Although little information on China's missile arsenal is available, it is one of the few countries in the world along with Russia and the United States to possess a complete range of surface, air and sea missiles. The missiles are essentially for strategic use, whether it be the surface-to-surface Dongfeng or the sea-to-surface Julang capable of striking Europe or the United States with its range of 8,000 to 10,000 kilometres (5,000 to 6,000 miles). Beijing also has short-range and medium-range tactical missiles among which six-short range missiles were used in military exercises in 1995 in the Taiwan Straits to illustrate its anger at Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's private visit to the United States.  