(Recasts with statement criticising farms)

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

THE HAGUE, June 13 (Reuters) - A U.N. wildlife conference rebuked China on Wednesday for reviewing a 1993 ban on domestic trade in tiger parts amid fears that any sales could drive wild cats to extinction.

"Tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts or derivatives," according to a decision by the 171-nation U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in The Hague.

Beijing told CITES last week that it was considering allowing domestic trade in parts from its 5,000 captive-bred tigers if a scientific review proved it would reduce poaching and help stocks of wild tigers worldwide.

But many nations, including India, Russia, Nepal, Bhutan and the United States, said any domestic Chinese sales would simply encourage poachers to cash in and shoot remaining tigers in the wild around Asia.

"This is a clear message that when these folks go back to China, they are going to have a strong time justifying (sales) at all," said Todd Willens, head of the U.S. delegation at the June 3-15 talks in the Hague.

Tiger numbers in the wild are thought to have plunged from 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to perhaps 5,000 because of hunting and loss of habitats. Tigers are prized for furs and their parts are used in traditional medicines.

The CITES decision was adopted by consensus even though China argued strongly against, delegates said. Beijing says its breeding centres support conservation of wild tigers -- China has only about 30 tigers left in the wild.

CONSERVATION

The CITES decision also said that countries with "intensive breeding operations" should limit numbers to "a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers". China has not successfully introduced farmed tigers to the wild.

John Sellar, CITES senior enforcement officer, was sceptical after visiting a breeding centre in China this year. "The potential for any of those tigers to be used for conservation purposes seems to be very limited, if existent at all," he said.

He urged nations to act to help the tiger which he said was "staring extinction in the face." CITES banned all international trade in tiger parts in 1975 and has no formal authority over domestic laws such as in China.

Many nations suspect that China's tiger farmers have bred thousands of caged cats in a gamble that Beijing would eventually permit domestic sales. In Chinese medicine, tiger parts are used as cures for everything from colds to rheumatism.

"The other (tiger) countries have stood up for the tiger and said: China please don't lift your ban," said Susan Lieberman, species expert at the WWF.

Willens said that he believed that the resolution would not close down circuses or tiger fairs in other nations, such as the United States or in the European Union.

Earlier, China had tried to reassure delegates that it would not rush to lift the domestic ban and that the scientific evaluation would be "transparent and open".

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