Zoo director Mohamad Ngah said Malaysia is currently eyeing the giant pandas, ringtail lemurs, white tigers, and golden monkeys from the Chinese zoos.

'On our end, we might be sending them our milky storks and painted storks, and other animals which we have in surplus,' he told reporters yesterday.

'We are currently still looking at each other's surplus list. It has to be a fair exchange, of course.'

He said Zoo Negara has been working on the exchange programme for two years now, and has so far signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) - with the Shanghai Safari Park and the Ningbo Youngor Zoo in China.

Since 1984, China has been offering pandas to other nations only on 10-year loans. Dr Mohamad said that Chinese officials had also been to Zoo Negara last year to see if it was suitable to house pandas.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK