Just 30 wild tigers survive today in Vietnam out of 3,200 across the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Police hand over a dead 156kg tiger to the Binh Duong Museum to serve scientific research.

The WWF said there were 100 wild tigers in Vietnam 10 years ago.

The conservation body said the number of tigers across the world had decreased by 97 per cent since 1900.

The main reason for the diminishing tiger population was deforestation, said Do Quang Tung, deputy director of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Vietnam.

The growing human population had also put pressure on tiger numbers, he added, as had illegal hunting and trafficking.

Meanwhile, Nick Cox, WWF\'s manager of protected areas, species and wildlife trade, said Vietnam was a trade hub for tiger products, while illegal medicines made from tiger bones had become increasingly popular

"It\'s very important at the moment to halt the illegal international tiger trade and domestic consumption of tigers," Cox said.

Keshav Varma, programme director of Global Tiger Initiative (GTI), said the continuous demand for tiger parts and the surge in illegal smuggling were totally unacceptable.

He said if things continued going as they were, the last remaining tigers in Indo-China would be wiped out within a few years.

Hoang Thi Thanh Nhan, deputy head of the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry\'s Bio-diversification Conservation Department, said Vietnam, in a bid to save tigers in the wild, had participated in Global Tiger Initiative forums.

Vietnam and 12 other countries had made a historic commitment to eradicating poaching and the illegal trade in wild tigers at the St Petersburg Tiger Summit last November, she said.

CITIES\' Tung added that a USD50 million national programme on tiger conservation had been set up with the aim of doubling the numbers of animals in the wild in Vietnam by 2020.