Domestication of any wild species will have to be approved by the SFA and stricter quarantine measures will be adopted. Those who rely on hunting animals rather than domesticating them will lose their business licences.

The Guangdong forestry spokesman said wildlife trading licences would soon be issued to qualified applicants.

While the door is opening up to domestication, wildlife consumption is still prohibited in restaurants. Informants who see wildlife on the menu and report it to the Wildlife Protection Office of Beijing's Forestry Bureau will be receive rewards of between 500 yuan (HK$470) and 1,000 yuan, said a spokesman.

Trade in wildlife has been largely prohibited since scientists from Hong Kong and Shenzhen in May identified civet cats as a likely source of the coronavirus, thought to cause Sars.

In response, the SFA banned all trade in wildlife other than for scientific purposes.

The agricultural committee of the National People's Congress supports the lifting of the ban, which was imposed at the peak of the Sars outbreak on the mainland. The committee's director, Liu Mingzu, said wildlife domestication should be allowed to increase peasants' income and meet demand, according to Xinhua.

'Many domestic animals and plants today have come from the wild and this evolutionary process goes on,' said Mr Liu. 'Wildlife resources are needed for medical, tourist and diet purposes.'

He said the ban was appropriate during the Sars crisis but that it was now important to minimise the harm to wildlife businesses.

Liu Yongming, a partridge farmer in Jieyang county, Guangdong, complained that the prohibition on wildlife trade had stifled his business. 'No one dares buy my birds now,' said Mr Liu, who keeps 200,000 American partridges. 'But they still eat forage [worth] 500,000 yuan every month.'

Animal rights activists were disappointed by the softening of the government's stance on wild-animal trade.

Zheng Ling, who took part in a public hearing in Guangzhou on Tuesday on whether or not the government should ban the consumption of wild animals, said the state should outlaw wild-animal trade and compensate affected farmers.

'People won't stop eating wild animals if we don't put an end to the trade,' said Ms Zheng yesterday.

'Even if the state prohibits wildlife hunting, it's hard to draw a line between wild animals and domesticated wild animals.

'Hunters can falsely claim to be raisers.'

Legal loopholes existed regarding wildlife trade, said Yang Yanqing, a lawyer for the Daowei law firm in Guangzhou.

'We need a thorough list of animals that can be lawfully domesticated and will have to define the term 'wild animals'.'

Ms Yang also supports an outright ban on wildlife trade.