State Forestry Administration has ordered forest police in southwestern Sichuan and Chongqing to investigate reports of illegal panda hunting.

The SFA spokesman Cao Qingyao said the administration was intent on establishing the truth of the media reports.

He said local police had detected several cases of illegal panda hunting and trading in Baoxing County, of Ya'an City, Sichuan Province.

"We have sent a working group to supervise the investigations and we prosecute anyone involved," he said.

The Guangzhou-based Nanfang Weekend newspaper reported on Thursday that mysterious buyers of panda fur came to Baoxing to persuade villagers to hunt and kill pandas about two years ago. They said a panda pelt could fetch up to 500,000 yuan (67,567 U.S. dollars) and hunters would get most of money after they sold the fur.

Some villagers, with an average annual income of less than 3,000 yuan (405 U.S. dollars), took up the offer, the newspaper reported.

Giant pandas are one of the world's most endangered species, with 1,590 pandas estimated to live in the wild, most in southwest China's mountains.

The Ya'an reserve, covering 5,300 kilometers, is home to about 300 wild pandas amd accounts for 52 percent of the animal's natural habitat in Sichuan.

In July last year, the World Heritage Committee added the habitat of the critically-endangered species to its natural heritage list.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2007)