His pet happens to be a 5m-long, 100kg Burmese python, with which he has shared an unusual bond since he was three months old.

Although the snake could easily break the boy's bones with its powerful grip, it likes nothing better than to let its young master sleep regularly in its coil, kiss it and even pat it down with baby powder.

Uorn Sambath's parents, rice farmer Khuorn Sam Ol and his wife Kim Kannara, are not worried about their child playing with a snake.

'My son played with the snake when he was still learning to crawl,' said Khuorn Sam Ol.

'They used to sleep together in a cradle.'

The boy and the snake have been together ever since the python slithered into the family home when Uorn Sambath was a baby.

His mother Kim Kannara discovered the then baby reptile coiled beneath a woven mat on their bed.

Khuorn Sam Ol took the snake away, releasing it in some bushes by a local river.

But one morning two weeks later, he found it back inside the house.

He came to believe that the snake possesses a magical spirit that protects the family from illness and decided to keep it, naming it Chamroeun, which means progress.

He said it takes three adults to carry Chamroeun, which eats about 10kg of chicken meat every week, posing a heavy financial burden on the family. According to Mr Nikolai Doroshenko, a Russian snake expert living in Cambodia, pythons rarely attack humans unless provoked.

Wildlife officials and police have tried to take the snake away and put it in a zoo, but they relented after seeing the boy cuddling the reptile lovingly.

'I will not let anyone take her away from me. I love her very much,' he said, kissing his pet on the head.

The boy and his snake have become a source of wonder to tourists and locals.

'People sometimes call the boy and the snake husband and wife,' said neighbour Cheng Raem, 48.

'Maybe they were a couple from a previous life.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS