China's new stealth fighter jet the J-20 is shown here on January 6 during one of the many test runs at the military airbase in China. A Chinese state newspaper poured scorn on reports that it had used technology from a downed US plane in its stealth fighter, hailing its jet as a "masterpiece" of homegrown innovation.

A Chinese state newspaper on Tuesday poured scorn on reports that it had used technology from a downed US plane in its stealth fighter, hailing its jet as a "masterpiece" of homegrown innovation.

A prototype of China's first , the J-20 -- seen as a future rival to the US Air Force's F-22 Raptor -- made its maiden flight earlier this month, during a visit to Beijing by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Reports have suggested the Chinese jet could have been made with technology from a US plane shot down in 1999 by a Serbian anti-aircraft missile during the Kosovo war, but a Chinese defence official dismissed them as unfounded.

"It's not the first time foreign media has smeared newly unveiled Chinese . It's meaningless to respond to such speculations," the official told the Global Times newspaper.

The paper -- a sister publication of the People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece -- also quoted a top test pilot, Xu Yongling, as saying the J-20 possessed advanced supersonic cruise ability and other "breakthrough" features.

"Different from previous fighters such as the J-7 and J-8, which drew on the merits of aircraft from other countries, the J-20 is a masterpiece of China's technological innovation," Xu said.

The pilot said the technology of the downed F-117 was regarded as "outdated" even at the time when it was shot down, and could not be applied to a next-generation stealth jet.

A senior US lawmaker, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, last week charged that the J-20 had been built based on technology copied from a Russian jet.

The US F-22 is currently the world's only fully operational next-generation stealth fighter jet. Other than the United States and , only a handful of countries are working on so-called next-generation stealth fighters.

In January 2010, Russia unveiled an aircraft touted as a rival to the US jet, developed by Sukhoi. Experts say Japan has a homegrown programme, while India is cooperating with Russia.

China has repeatedly insisted that its military growth and modernisation are defensive in nature and pose no threat to other nations.