Eighteen panda cubs were born last year alone, Zhao Xuemin, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration, said yesterday at a seminar on panda protection held in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The official attributed the rapid birth rate increase in this rare species to breakthroughs in artificial reproduction.

Chinese researchers have solved several key issues in panda propagation, officials said.

China launched a special program to protect the giant pandas and their natural habitats in the early 1990s. So far four centers for panda propagation have been set up, with encouraging results.

At the renowned China Giant Panda Protection Center at Wolong in southwest China's Sichuan Province, for instance, researchers have achieved a 100 percent survival rate for panda cubs over the past six years.

China has built 55 nature reserves, plus a dozen protective corridors connecting the reserves with pandas' natural habitats.

"The efforts have brought more than 70 percent of the giant pandas living in the wild under effective protection," Zhao said.

Researchers calculate the world's giant panda population now totals 1,596, most of which live in the mountains of China's western provinces, including Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

The Chinese forestry official said more pandas raised in captivity will be released to increase the number now living in the wild. Zhao said the April release of Xiangxiang, a 5-year-old panda raised in captivity, has been a success and that the animal has been in contact with other pandas.