Some Chinese tiger parks are pressing the government to lift its ban on the trade in tiger products, six international conservation organizations revealed Thursday.

The Conservation International, TRAFFIC, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Wildlife Conservation Society, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Save the Tiger Fund at a joint meeting urged the government to resist the pressure.

The groups' representatives expressed concern that China's robust internal market for tiger bone would continue to threaten wild tigers.

Representatives warned that proposals by tiger parks to legalize the trade in tiger parts and derivatives could stimulate an increase in demand, seriously undermining China's decade-long campaign to raise public awareness of the need for conservation.

The call was made soon after the government announced its first regulation on the trade of endangered species would take effect on Sept. 1.

"We hope that China, in the spirit of this new regulation and the upcoming 2008 Green Olympics, will reiterate its commitment to the 1993 ban on the trade of all tiger derivatives from all sources, and thereby continue to play a responsible leadership role in protecting the world's few wild remaining tigers," said Grace Ge, Asia director of the IFAW.

Tiger bones are commonly believed to be an ideal treatment for illnesses such as rheumatism in China.

The WWF estimates the number of tigers in the wild may have dropped well below 5,000 due to habitat loss, a shrinking prey base and poaching. Most of China's remaining wild tigers are found in the northeast near the Russian border.

"In China, it is estimated that fewer than 20 wild tigers remain in the northeast and about 30 roam in southwest China along its borders with Myanmar and Laos," said Xie Yan, a professor with the China Academy of Sciences.

Poaching would quickly drive the species to extinction.

The country's wildlife faced unprecedented threats from fast economic and social development, said Fan Xiaojian, Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

China's new Regulations on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora cover wildlife listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). China signed up to the international convention in 1981.

CITES prohibited the international tiger trade in 1987. In 1993, China banned all domestic trade in tiger parts and derivatives.

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2006)