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Public, media cool to offer to rent pandas to Tokyo zoo

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Some Japanese public and media reactions have been chilly towards President Hu Jintao's offer to rent two giant pandas to a Tokyo zoo.

Japanese media reported yesterday that Japan would pay 100 million yen (HK$7.42 million) a year for the two pandas and mocked Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda for the 'bad deal'. The other eight pandas on loan to Japan cost only 100 million yen altogether.

The Ueno Zoo, which first received a pair of pandas, Kang Kang and Lan Lan, 36 years ago to celebrate the re-establishment of Sino-Japanese ties, claimed that it did not have the money and appealed to the local government for funds.

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, an outspoken critic of China, called on the zoo to study whether renting the pandas would make financial sense by drawing more visitors.

'They are not divine. I don't care if they're there or not,' Mr Ishihara said before Mr Hu's visit.

Ueno Zoo and the Tokyo government have received scores of calls about the panda deal, with an overwhelming majority against the idea, officials said. Opponents also put up posters opposing the panda deal on walls at the zoo.

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