KEY POINTS:
CANBERRA - Two giant pandas on loan from China will soon make Adelaide Zoo their new home thanks to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Prime Minister John Howard and China's President Hu Jintao are expected to sign an agreement at the Apec meeting in Sydney today formalising the 10-year loan.
Mr Downer said he played a pivotal role in securing the pandas so that they could breed in Australia as part of a global survival program.
"I love animals and I think the giant panda is one of the truly great animals of the world - they're an endangered species," Mr Downer told the Nine Network.
"It is true that I've been working with the Chinese in my position not only as an Adelaide MP, but also as the foreign minister, to try to get them to lend to us, an Australian zoo, two giant pandas.
"And they've agreed to do it to my own home zoo which my own grandfather was once the president of, so I'm kind of excited about it."
- AAP
