HONG KONG (AFP) - - As China scrambled to cope Tuesday with the death and devastation from a massive earthquake that hit the country's southwest, the government made an important announcement - Pandas in the quake zone are safe

With the death toll climbing above 10,000 and foreign governments offering aid and cash to boost the rescue effort, the state-run Xinhua news agency said 63 giant pandas at two breeding centres near the quake zone were safe.

The fate of another 150 or so inmates of China's most famous panda park, the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre, was unclear.

The 7.8-magnitude quake, which hit Sichuan province early Monday afternoon, reportedly shook the park, about three hours drive from Chengdu, the provincial capital.

Like many parts of Sichuan, the park could not be reached by telephone after the quake, which was felt thousands of kilometres (miles) away.

Xinhua earlier reported that 15 Britons were among 2,000 tourists stranded in the region and out of contact.

It quoted a local official as saying the British tourists were probably in Wolong. British authorities sent emergency personnel to the area to help with search and rescue efforts.

The panda has become central to China's tourism industry, with around 100,000 people a year visiting the Wolong park alone.

It is one of the world's most endangered species, with an estimated 1,600 in nature parks in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, and 239 in captivity, Chinese media have said.

China is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which bans trade in the animal but does allow the Chinese government to use the panda to further its diplomatic ambitions, leasing them to zoos worldwide for millions of dollars and priceless international goodwill.

Last week, Chinese President Hu Jintao offered during a fence-mending trip to Japan to lend the country a male and female panda to replace an elderly male called Ling Ling that had just died at Tokyo's zoo.

The first panda diplomat was Ping Ping, who went to the former Soviet Union in 1957, and in 1972, pandas, also called Ling Ling, and Xing Xing went to the United States to cement newly-minted ties between Washington and Beijing.

Pandas draw crowds from London to Sydney to Hong Kong to Seoul at zoos that welcome the extra crowds, and revenue, they attract. San Diego zoo in 1999 successfully bred from the pair it rents on a 10-year, 10-million-dollar deal.

The panda is a member of the bear family and once inhabited wide swathes of mountainous southwestern China but fierce pressure from population growth and industrial development has pushed it into tiny forested regions that are still regularly encroached upon.

It eats only one species of bamboo and has become notoriously shy about mating, which has led to some creative efforts by researchers at breeding programmes to encourage reproduction.

Initiatives include giving male pandas the libido-enhancing drug Viagra and showing them videos of other pandas mating, dubbed panda porn.

The breeding programmes have claimed some success in recent years. According to domestic media, by the end of last year, the Wolong reserve had bred 130 pandas from an original 10.