Taiwan rejects Chinese pandas -- again

Giant pandas are seen inside the new giant panda habitat at the Hong Kong Ocean Park June 30, 2007. Taiwan has rejected a theme park's second request to bring over two pandas from China, amid fears that Beijing will use the animals to win goodwill in its push for political unification, a park spokesman said on Tuesday.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan has rejected a theme park's second request to bring over two pandas from China, amid fears that Beijing will use the animals to win goodwill in its push for political unification, a park spokesman said on Tuesday.

In rejecting the request, Taiwan's Council of Agriculture told the Leofoo Village Theme Park last week that it must further research panda habitat by consulting animal care groups or experienced zoos, park spokeswoman Tiffany Chen told Reuters.

It said the park must also get a letter guaranteeing China will uphold its end of any transfer deal, she said.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, and Beijing has threatened to use force if the island formally declares statehood.

Over the past two years, Beijing has taken a series of measures to make a friendlier impression on Taiwan's public.

The pandas, which have been promised to Taiwan since 2006, live at the Wolong China Giant Panda Research Centre in southwest China's Sichuan province.

"What's undeniable is that mainland China has an intent to take us over," the Taiwan government's Mainland Affairs Council chairman Chen Ming-tong said at a news conference. "You can go to China to see pandas. Why do they need to come here?"

The pandas on offer, a male and a female, are named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, words which said together mean "unite."

Taiwan's humid coastal climate doesn't work for pandas, about 1,000 of which live in the wild bamboo forests of southwestern China, the council chairman said.

China first announced in 2005 during a Taiwan opposition leader's historic visit to Beijing that it would donate pandas to Taiwan. The theme park, which is the only Taiwan entity to have applied for the animals, said terms were never discussed.

Leofoo plans to apply once again but cannot say when.

"We're disappointed, but we'll go on trying," the spokeswoman said. "We respect the government's view that the original habitat is best for pandas."

(Editing by Bill Tarrant)