By: BangkokPost.com
Published: 3/06/2009 at 10:16 AM

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti plans to visit Beijing soon to ask the Chinese government to extend the period the two giant pandas and their new cub can stay in Thailand.

Mr Suwit said on Wednesday the birth of the cub, the first in Thailand, had drawn great public interest.

He would visit China in the next month or so and negotiate for the establishment of a permanent panda research centre in Thailand, as the weather here is well-suited for giant pandas.

Chiang Mai Zoo will organise a birthday party in the traditional Lanna style when the baby panda is one month old, he said.

The zoo will pick four names for the panda cub, to be generated by a public competition,  and the public will later be invited to decide on its name through a postcard vote.

China lent Lin Hui, the mother of the cub, and Xuang Xuang to the country six years ago, and Lin Hui delivered her first cub on May 27 after artficial insemination. The  loan period is  ten years