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`Pumpkin' should be with grandma, half sister says

The future of the New Zealand toddler found abandoned this month in an Australian train station became clearer yesterday when a close relative supported a plan for the child to live in China with her grandmother.

The child's half sister, Grace Xue, said she would support grandmother Liu Xiaoping if New Zealand's family court allowed her to take three-year-old Qian Xun Xue, a New Zealand national, to China.

"I'm very glad her grandmother is here so she has some familiar face and is more comfortable," Xue told National Radio a day after the grandmother and child were reunited.

The child's father, Xue Naiyin, 54, is the prime suspect in the murder of his wife, Anan Liu, 27, whose body was found stashed in the trunk of his car. He is being sought in the US, as he boarded a flight to Los Angeles shortly after flying to Melbourne with his daughter and then dumping her at the city's main train station.

Qian Xun Xue was flown back to Auckland on Monday and put in the care of the government's Child, Youth and Family welfare agency while the country's family court decides her future.

Grace Xue said a family conference on the child's future would be held shortly, adding that her concern was to "protect little Pumpkin's best interests."

Pumpkin was the nickname given the child by welfare workers in Melbourne.

Auckland lawyer Raymond Huo said the decision by Grace Xue to support the toddler living in China "is very good news."

The search for fugitive Naiyin Xue has intensified, with US marshals issuing wanted posters for the man they have warned may be armed and dangerous.
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