Chinese police have detained a man trying to sell the fur of a young panda -- seen as a national treasure in the country -- for about US$30,000, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday. The man, surnamed Yang, was caught when he was about to finish the 250,000 yuan (US$31,310) sale in the southeastern port city of Xiamen, Xinhua said.

"The fur is 60 centimetres (24 inches) long and belonged to a panda cub," it quoted experts as saying. Yang and his accomplice, who is wanted by police, bought the fur with 6,000 yuan seven years ago from a man in the country s southwest where most pandas live, the report said, adding police also found the pelt of a clouded leopard with Yang.

The giant panda is one of the worlds most exotic and endangered species and is found only in China. An estimated 1,500 wild pandas live in isolated nature reserves in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. Xinhua did not say what charges Yang would face, but poachers and smugglers of endangered animals could be jailed for more than 10 years and fined in China.
(Planet Ark, 25/07/2006)