The forecast was made by the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is based in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

Saturday's total solar eclipse can be viewed in the northeast of the Atlantic Ocean, central Iceland and the central and southern areas of Greenland, said Cao Yun, a research fellow with the observatory.

A partial eclipse will be witnessed from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the northwestern parts of neighboring Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai and Gansu provinces, the northwest and northeast of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China and the northernmost areas of Heilongjiang Province, in the country's northeast, according to Cao.

People in Kashi of Xinjiang can view the partial eclipse on Saturday between 10:05 and 11:50 a.m., in Urumqi, the regional capital, between 10:26 and 12:05 a.m., and in Mohe of Heilongjiang, between 11:55 a.m. and 13:09 p.m., according to Cao.

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2003)