Clone a panda to save a panda

Chen, who was not available for comment, last week told the Beijing Youth Daily that the group had successfully bred Panda body cells as part of foundation-building preliminary research. 8220;We hope that we can obtain a cloning result within 10 years.8221; he said.

The group is preparing to set up an experimental model using more abundant test animals such as mice and rabbits, Chen said.

Plans to clone the panda-which is native only to China and a national symbol 8212; have come under fire from some scientific circles here.

Pan Wenshi, a Panda expert at Beijing University8217;s BiologyDepartment, has attacked the idea as potentially damaging to the species8217; already-shrunken genetic pool.