Abandoned toddler reunited with grandmother

An abandoned toddler has been reunited with her Chinese grandmother today, after the child flew back from Australia to return to her family.

Toddler Qian Xun Xue, 3, was expected to meet grandmother Liu Xiaoping within the next day, after returning to New Zealand from the southern Australian city of Melbourne where she was abandoned by her father 10 days ago, officials said.

The girl's father, Xue Naiyin, is the prime suspect in the murder of his wife, Anan Liu, 27, and kidnap of his daughter after Liu's body was found stashed in the boot of his car. He is being sought after fleeing to the United States.

The child was flown to the northern city of Auckland yesterday and put in the care of the government's Child, Youth and Family welfare agency, Australia's Department of Human Services said today.

The grandmother is flying to New Zealand from her home in China and may seek custody of her granddaughter, Associate Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove said.

Cosgrove would be giving out no information about Qian Xun's reunion with her grandmother "because the family wants some privacy and we respect that", his spokeswoman Juliet McLeod said.

"Once the family's reunited ... if they wish to make a public statement, then that will happen," she said.

A warrant for Xue's arrest on murder and kidnap charges last week was sent by New Zealand police through Interpol to the United States where he fled a week ago.

The investigation was launched after Xue was captured on security camera video leaving Qian Xun alone at a train station in Melbourne on September 15. He boarded a flight to Los Angeles shortly afterward.

Xue, 54, is the publisher of a Chinese-language magazine in New Zealand and a well-known figure in the ethnic Chinese community in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. Police said he had a history of family violence.