A baby boy, weighing 15.52 pounds (7.04kg), born in central China on Saturday, is believed to be the biggest and heaviest in the country's history.

According to available records, the previous heaviest babies (born between 2008 and 2010) weighed exactly 7kg. The one born on Saturday, named Chun Chun, is now believed to be the record holder.

The child was born after a cesarean operation, which lasted 20 minutes. Both the mother and her son are doing well, an Associated Press report said.

Meanwhile, the father of the boy, Han Jingang, is happy for yet another reason. The baby has been born almost immediately after the start of the lunar New Year - the year of the Dragon.

"Today is the first day of Spring in the Chinese Calendar and he is a 'dragon boy'. I feel very happy," a local television channel, Xinxiang Television, quoted him as saying.

The child's mother, Wang Yujuan, 29, was quoted as saying she senses something special.

"I clearly felt that my baby was more clumsy than when I had been pregnant with my daughter. My belly was bigger than it was then. I guessed the baby would be between 4.5 and 5 kgs. I never expected to hear that he weighs 7 kgs," said Yujuan.

Finally, according to the AP report, the Guinness World Records organisation has confirmed that Chun Chun is not the heaviest baby ever born. That honour, apparently, goes to a child born in Ohio, in 1879; the weight, at birth, 23.7 pounds (10.77kg).

See photos of Chun Chun here...

China