The two bears have been completely neglected by their young mother, who refused to nurse them after they were delivered last week. The zoo keepers were forced to take them away from their mother, dry them and feed them with glucose and milk.

But babies always need colostrum - the first secretions from the mammary glands after birth which contain important antibodies.

The zoo keepers advertised in the local press for help.

Xie Fang, a journalist with the local newspaper Hangzhou Daily, said they had less than two hours to meet the deadline for giving the pandas good milk.

"I dashed out of my office and ran all the way to the obstetric section of the nearest hospital," she wrote in a story carried in Tuesday's Hangzhou Daily.

"There were not many deliveries at the hospital, and only one of the young mothers was up to the requirements. But she had breast-fed her baby just before we arrived," Xie wrote. "We were at our wits' end.

"Fortunately, the head nurse helped the mother produce more milk with massage, and we got enough colostrum in only 10 minutes.

"Back at the zoo, we watched the two baby pandas go quietly to sleep as they drank happily through a straw," said Xie.

The special "nanny" said she would call on her two "babies" at the zoo with her own child some day, the report said.

(Xinhua News Agency 07/06/2001)