Thailand seeks China's approval of extended stay for "Ling Ping"

BANGKOK, May 8 (TNA) - A Thai delegation, led by Natural Resources and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk, has left for Beijing to request an extended loan of giant pandas. The Thai delegation, including Permanent Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Chote Trachu and the director-general of the ministry's Zoological Park Organization, is scheduled to meet the Chinese minister of environmental protection to officially discuss the request for the first round. The Thai authorities will seek a five-year longer stay of Xuang Xuang, Lin Hui and their offspring, Lin Ping, and will ask the Chinese government to lend a male giant panda to mate with Lin Ping in Thailand. Preecha told reporters prior to his departure that, given sound relations between the Thai and Chinese governments, he believes the Chinese government will respond positively to all the Thai requests, with an answer expected by May 11. Thailand and China have, meanwhile, planned to jointly expand research projects on the conservation of giant pandas and they may set up a giant panda conservation center in Thailand, which will, if materialized, become the first facility of its kind in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (TNA)