BEIJING -- China currently has 221 pandas that have been bred in captivity with 32 panda cubs born through artificial insemination this year, 28 of whom have survived.

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The figures were disclosed by the Ministry of Construction on Friday at a multi-Ministry meeting on biological species protection.

Sources from the meeting also said China has established a national biological database to better protect and save biological species.

This comes in response to reports, discussed in the meeting, that China's protection of biological species has been severely limited and the losses of domestic biological species have not been curbed due to lax supervision.

The Ministry of Agriculture has only managed to collect and save 16 wild plant species, such as wild teas, and build 12 protection zones for wild plants, such as wild soybean and wild rice.

The State Forestry Administration received applications to name 73 new plants and approved 41 of them in 2006.

China is planning to establish an early-warning supervision system to improve the protection of biological species, according to ministry sources.