3:19pm UK, Thursday December 12, 2002

If you're stuck for ideas for Christmas presents, why not put your loved ones in the same league as some of the world's leaders with a blob of Finnish reindeer DNA sealed in a vial and topped with silver antlers.

Richard Collins, project manager at Hong Kong-based DNA-Tech Ltd, said customer interest in the reindeer DNA had snowballed since his firm began selling it for £39 a sample.

180 reindeer

President Bush a proud owner

He said: "The pendant contains the entire genetic code of a reindeer. So if, in the future, you had the technology, you could, in theory, reproduce a whole reindeer.

"We think it's a nice Christmas gift."

The preserved DNA was extracted from blood taken from reindeer at the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute near the Arctic circle.

US President George Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pope John Paul II will all receive free pendants from the company as Christmas gifts.

Collins' firm also offers to preserve DNA from pets - dead or alive - and is looking into obtaining DNA from endangered pandas, and for a source of dinosaur DNA.