CHENGDU: A giant panda notorious for spending four and half years on the run after escaping captivity in Sichuan Province, gave birth on Saturday, only eight months after she was recaptured.

A giant panda walks through the grasslands set for him to forage and play at a panda conservation center in Chengdu, China, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006. [AP]

New mother Bai Xue's female cub, conceived by artificial insemination, was born at 8:50am at the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The baby weighed in at 160 grams, said the centre's head Zhang Hemin.

"The birth, the first among captive giant pandas this year, has turned a celebrity known for her unruliness into a heroine once again," said Zhang.

Sixteen-year-old Bai Xue her name means Snow White in English and her daughter are both in a healthy condition.

"It was unexpectedly good news for us," said Zhang. "We didn't expect her to become pregnant and give birth when we inseminated her in April this year, as she is getting quite old and has not totally regained her strength after returning to the centre."

Experts at the centre were surprised and delighted at the birth, added Zhang.

Bai Xue escaped from the Wolong centre in 2001 and was not found until November 2005 when wondered into centre's workers' housing complex.

Born a wild giant panda, Bai Xue was found injured in the Qinling Mountains of northwestern Shaanxi Province in 1993.

Bai Xue was sent to Wolong in 1995 for breeding research. The giant panda mothered five cubs in three births before she escaped in 2001, Zhang said.

The father of Bai Xue's new cub is a giant panda named Shi Shi, who lives in a breeding base in Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan.