Chinese President Hu Jintao offered the male and female panda, which will arrive in 2011 and stay for 10 years, after arriving for a state visit ahead of a regional summit, according to a statement Thursday on the Web site of the Singapore Foreign Minister.

Beijing has been lending pandas to other countries as a symbol of friendship for more than 50 years.

Only about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in China's southwestern Sichuan province, which was hit by an earthquake last year that killed nearly 70,000 people. Another 120 are in Chinese breeding facilities and zoos, and about 20 live in zoos outside China.

The River Safari at Wildlife Reserve Singapore will build a new facility, which will open in 2012, to house the animals and conduct research into breeding the animals, the statement said.

"This collaboration will also boost greater interest in the areas of conservation, especially for the giant pandas," Claire Chiang, chairman of Wildlife Reserve Singapore, said in a statement.

China loaned a pair of pandas to Singapore Zoo for 100 days in 1990, but the animals were returned afterward.