AMERICAN-BORN panda Hua Mei has again given birth to a pair of cubs yesterday (July 16) morning at the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The first baby was female and the second one was male and weighed 129.8 grams.

Hua Mei, who was born at the San Diego Zoo in August 1999, becoming the first giant panda to be born in the Western Hemisphere since 1990. It returned to China in February 2004.

Before this pair, Hua Mei had given birth to one pair in September 2004 and another in August 2005

More than 20 pandas were born in captivity in China last year, the report said.

The panda is one of the world's rarest animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.

Editor: Wing