BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhuanet) -- New Zealand media reported Friday the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago has told visiting Prime Minister Helen Clark it will return the bones - partial skulls and jawbones - of 14 Maori dating back at least to the mid-19th century.

"We're fully convinced that this is a request from people who really care," Field Museum's curator of Pacific Anthropology John Terrell said on Radio New Zealand.

New Zealand's national museum first requested the return of the remains in 2004.

Terrell said the museum had acquired the bones from a New York scientific supply company in the late 19th century, but it was not known how they came to be in the United States.

A delegation of Maori, New Zealand's indigenous people who make up about 15 percent of the population, is expected to travel to Chicago to bring back the bones.

New Zealand authorities in recent years have pressed overseas museums to return the remains of Maori, including shrunken tattooed heads, held as exhibits.

Last month the University of Aberdeen's Marischal Museum in Scotland agreed to return nine Maori preserved heads.

(Agencies)