China Premier Li starts Australia trip with Adelaide panda announcement

(Reuters) -- China Premier Li Qiang made a low-key start on Sunday to a four-day trip to Australia with visits to a South Australian winery and Adelaide Zoo, where he announced Beijing would provide two new pandas after the current pair go home later this year.

Li, China's second-highest ranked official and the first Chinese premier to visit Australia in seven years, is due to meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday. He arrived in the South Australia state capital late on Saturday, saying bilateral relations were "back on track".

China, Australia's largest trade partner, imposed restrictions on a raft of Australian agricultural and mineral exports in 2020 during a diplomatic dispute that has now largely eased.

On Sunday, Li's first official stop was to visit a pair of pandas on loan from China to Adelaide's zoo, where Australian Broadcasting Corp television showed crowds gathered, some waving Chinese flags, while others held signs that read "No more panda propaganda".

At the zoo, Li announced the pandas would return to China in November and the zoo would get to select two new giant pandas, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

The pandas had "become envoys of friendship between China and Australia, and a symbol of the profound friendship between the two peoples", Li said, according to a statement from the Chinese embassy.

"China is ready to continue with the cooperative research with Australia on the conservation of giant pandas, and hopes that Australia will continue to be an amicable home for giant pandas," Li added.

The pandas, Fu Ni and Wang Wang, have been at the zoo since 2009 but have not successfully bred, the ABC reported.

Li later attended an event with South Australia wine exporters, who until recently