Australia handed over about 20 tons of illegally imported dinosaur and other fossils to China on Friday, a move hailed as historic in cultural heritage protection.

The handover involves about 10,000 fossils, with a total value of between 4 million to 5 million Australian dollars (3 million to US$3.8 million), including dinosaur eggs, ancient turtles, a sabre-tooth cat, early elephants and rhinoceros as well as rare fossils of fish and reptiles. Some of the fossils are up to 230 million years old.

The fossils were seized in federal police operations near Perth, capital of Western Australia, in conjunction with the Chinese authorities in June last year. It was the biggest seizure of the kind in Australia and one of the largest recovered worldwide.

At a ceremony attended by ministerial delegations from the two countries held here, Australian Minister for Environment and Heritage Ian Campbell said the recovery of the fossils and their return "is an excellent example of our two countries working together to conserve and protect some of the world's most important scientific and cultural heritage."

Campbell described the handover as an extraordinarily important event in the history of cultural protection of the two countries.

He said Australia welcomes China's rapid economic development, which creates opportunities for the two countries to forge even stronger cooperative links in many areas including cultural protection.

Australian Minister for Justice and Customs Christopher Ellison said in a statement on Friday that the return of the haul is out of the Australian government's commitment to the protection of the world's heritage.

"The Australian government has great respect for the significance of these items as part of China's scientific and cultural history, and is committed to ensuring the world's important heritage is protected into the future," he said.

Australia's Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986 allows the government to respond to official requests from foreign governments to return cultural heritage objects that have been illegally exported.

Thanking the Australian government for the handover of the seizure, Chinese Vice Minister of Land and Resources Yun Xiaosu noted this is China's first cooperation with a foreign government in fossil protection.

He said international smuggling of fossils is still rampant, posing a tough challenge to the cracking down on the illegal trade. He called for enhanced international cooperation to protect the common heritage of the human being.

Scientists also welcomed the return of the fossils to China, saying it will deal a blow to the illegal trade of fossils.

John Long, one of Australia's leading researchers on illegal fossil trading, told Xinhua that it is a "historic" and "most important event" in the fight against smuggling.

He said fossil trade fairs in countries like the United States provide opportunities for international smugglers, while a lot of customers at the fairs just don't know that the fossils they bought were illegally exported.

The recovery and handover of the fossils has also created opportunities for the two countries' scientists to conduct joint researches in future, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2005)