Taipei - Taipei Zoo on Thursday launched a "Ring-a-Panda" service, enabling people to watch the two Chinese pandas live via videophone.

The service allows Panda-loving 3G phone users to dial a number and then view either two hours of live broadcasts from the Panda's cage, or hours of prerecorded footage of the pair.

The two pandas were originally given to Taiwan by Chinese president Hu Jintao to improve ties between the two sides, split since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

The pair arrived at the zoo last year.

Since then an average of 12,500 people have visited the Panda House to see the animals every day, making them the star attraction of the zoo.

However, the pandas carry a political symbolism - as China named them Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan (Tuanyuan means reunion in Chinese) to symbolize Beijin's insistence that Taiwan and China should reunify.

Giant pandas are one of the rarest animals in the world. More than 180 giant pandas live in captivity around the world, and about 1,590 remain in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, China.

The animals are threatened by loss of habitat, poaching and a low reproduction rate.(dpa)