Conservationists are meeting in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, to discuss how to stop the rapid decline in the number of tigers in the wild.

The loss of much of the tiger's forest habitat and the threat of poachers have reduced numbers to a few thousand.

At the first meeting of the Global Tiger Forum, delegates hope they can persuade richer nations to fund protection measures in poorer countries with tiger populations.

But the BBC correspondent in Dhaka says the meeting is handicapped by the non-participation of the majority of countries where the tiger can be still found in the wild including China, which has probably the biggest market for tiger products used for medicine in many Asian countries.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service