China's new icebreaker for polar expeditions, expected to be delivered by 2014, took the first step in its design on Tuesday with tenders for the vessel's construction under preparation, according to the top ocean watchdog.

The design contract was signed on Tuesday among the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, the Polar Research Institute of China and Finland-based Aker Arctic Technology, which will participate in the design of the icebreaker.

According to a statement released by the Finnish company, the contract exceeds $613 million and the design work will last about seven months.

The currently unnamed icebreaker, China's second after the Ukraine-built Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, will be between 100 and 120 meters long and between 20 and 24 meters wide with its displacement reaching 8,000 metric tons, according to the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.

The vessel will have a crew of 90 and will be capable of breaking through ice up to 1.5 meters thick and covered with up to 0.2-meter snow at a speed of between 2 and 3 knots.

Its cruising radius is about 20,000 nautical miles (37,000 kilometers). The vessel will be fitted with twin azimuthing propeller drives, according to the administration.

"With a 580-square-meter lab and a 700-square-meter deck, the ship will provide enough space for scientific research in various fields," Xinhua News Agency quoted Qu Tanzhou, director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, as saying on Tuesday.

He said the new vessel, which will be built in China, will largely enhance the country's polar expedition capacities and improve the Chinese shipbuilding industry.

Within the coming 10 years, China will accelerate its pace in exploring the Arctic and Antarctic areas with two Arctic expeditions planned before 2015.

The only icebreaker, Xuelong, cannot meet the country's increasing demand for polar expeditions, Qu said, adding the construction of the new icebreaker is urgent.

Liu Xiaohan, an expert in polar research with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said how advanced an icebreaker is determines a country's polar research capabilities.

Russia has 20 icebreakers, including seven nuclear-powered; Canada has six icebreakers and the United States has four.

Since 1984, Chinese scientists have explored the Antarctica every year, but have gone only four times to the Arctic, which is largely because China owns only one icebreaker, Qu said in a previous interview with China Daily.

Xuelong, which has a service life of about 30 years, was purchased from Ukraine in 1993 and is due for a technological upgrade in 2013 to expand its service life by another 15 to 20 years, Huang Rong, chief engineer of the vessel, told China Daily.

With nearly 30 years' development in polar expeditions, China has built Arctic Yellow River Station in Svalbard, Norway; Great Wall Station in the King George Island, west Antarctica; Zhongshan Station in the Larsemann Hills, east Antarctica; and Kunlun Station on Dome A, the highest place in Antarctica.