Chinese doctors have separated four-month old conjoined twin baby girls in an operation lasting nearly 12 hours, xinhua news agency said yesterday.

The girls, born prematurely without breastbones, spent their first four months with livers, hearts and a large area of their breast and abdomen connected, li yanmin, director of the paediatric department at the first hospital of hebei medical university in shijiazhuang, was quoted as saying.

During the operation on sunday, doctors separated the twins? livers, repositioned

Their hearts and rebuilt their breastbones. Both were in a relatively stable condition, but they still had to survive the crucial and dangerous 72 hours after the operation. Doctors had waited to operate until the girls? joint weight reached 7.5 kg . They were born with congenital heart disease and together Weighed only 4.3 kg.