Giant panda Guo Guo, an evacuee from the May 12 earthquake, gave birth to twins on Sunday -- the first to bear cubs since the disaster.

She is also the first panda to give birth around the globe this year. The elder of the two cubs weighed 170 grams.

Guo Guo was among six pandas evacuated to neighboring Ya'an City from the quake-hit China Giant Panda Research Center in Wolong Nature Reserve's Hetaoping base.

Huang Zhi, an animal preservation official in Ya'an, said 12-year-old Guo Guo suffered an exhausting 100-kilometer evacuation journey during her pregnancy. She has been put under round-the-clock care in Ya'an. Guo Guo has given three births three years running.

There were 63 giant pandas living in the Hetaoping base before the quake. One was killed in the disaster and another is missing. The surviving pandas have been moved to panda breeding bases Fujian, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces.

Twelve pairs of panda twins were born in captivity in China last year, the most since an artificial breeding program started over 40 years ago.

(Xinua News Agency & Shanghai Daily July 7, 2008)