CHENGDU, Dec. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Southwest China's Sichuan Province will release giant pandas bred in captivity back into the wild in an effort to improve the genetic diversity and quality of the species.

    Yang Dongsheng, director of Sichuan Forestry Bureau, said that the purpose of the program is to enlarge the number of pandas and to preserve the endangered species in the wild.

    "With the increasing number of pandas bred and kept in captivity, we will be able to set free some of them and form new filiations for their species," Yang said.

    Xiang Xiang, a panda bred in Sichuan's Wolong Giant Panda Research Center, has been on a reintegration programme since 2003,according to Zhang Hemin, an expert with the center.

    Zhang said the panda will be fully set free in the area around the center in the near future. He believed that by 2008 the freed animal will be fully adjusted to life in the wild, and will begin to breed.

    If Xiang Xiang adapts well, the center plans to return several panda couples in the years ahead.

    Experts fear that life in captivity may blunt the animal's natural instincts. Pandas in the wild are inquisitive creatures, with occasional savage tendencies, experts said.

    China's steadily increasing number of giant pandas in captivityhas enabled some animals to be returned to the wild, according to Feng Wenhe, a professor from Sichuan University.

    A total of 98 pandas are living at the Wolong center, and by 2008, their population is expected to reach 300. So far, a total of 55 nature reserves have been set up for pandas, along with 10 protective corridors allowing them to move freely among habitats.

    It is estimated that there are around 1,590 wild giant pandas in the world, with most living in the mountains in southwest China's Sichuan Basin. Enditem