Li Chongxi, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Sichuan Provincial Committee, who is heading the delegation, said Tuesday that Zhang Hemin, director of the Wolong Giant Panda Protection Research Center of China, will visit Taipei Zoo to offer assistance on preparing the pandas for breeding.

Li, who joined ruling Kuomingtang Honorary Chairman Lien Chan when he visited Sichuan in October 2005 to see the pandas China planned to give Taiwan, said the two pandas were selected based on their good appearance and ability to breed.

Expressing the hope that the pandas will soon have as good looking a cub as them, Li said he invited Zhang to pay a visit to Taiwan to help with panda propagation because giant pandas, especially those in captivity, usually have low sexual desires.

Based on Zhang's rich experience in panda propagation research and his ability to help female giant pandas get pregnant and give birth, Li said that he believes Zhang will be able to help the pair of pandas produce cubs.

Captive pandas usually reach sexual maturity at five and a half years old, and therefore it is too early for the pandas to mate since they were both born in 2004. Yuan Yuan went into heat for the first time last year in China, but Tuan Tuan has yet to show interest, Zhang acknowledged.

The panda expert said giant pandas become sexually mature at different ages, but he suggested that their keepers should try to arouse the two pandas' sexual instincts, enhance their natural mating ability and improve their reproductive capacity. If those steps did not work, they could then try artificial insemination.

"It should not be a problem to have Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan produce offspring, " Zhang said, in expressing his strong confidence in his research center's ability in help with panda breeding.

Meanwhile, Li gave assurances that if the female panda successfully gives birth to cubs, they will not be sent back to China.

(By Chang Ming-kun and Y.L. Kao)