Wellington  - New Zealanders Beryl Baguley and Matilda "Tilly" Hanlon celebrated their 100th birthday Thursday, claiming to be the world's oldest living identical twins.

The pair, who live separately in towns near Auckland on North Island, celebrated with about 60 family members and friends at a party in a club.

They received letters of congratulation from Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who is also queen of New Zealand, and Prime Minister John Key.

"It's a very exciting time. I got five letters from parliament and the letter from the queen is lovely," Beryl Baguley told the Franklin County News.

The paper said the mathematical chance of identical twins reaching the age of 100 was one in 700 million. (dpa)