Beijing: China's troubled Jade Rabbit lunar rover, which experienced mechanical difficulties last month, has come "back to life", state media reported on Thursday.

"It came back to life! At least it is alive and so it is possible we could save it," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Pei Zhaoyu, spokesman for the lunar programme, as saying on a verified account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

A photo of China's Jade Rabbit moon rover taken by the Chang'e-3 probe lander on December 15, 2013. Jade Rabbit has sent back photos from the moon after the first lunar soft landing in nearly four decades, was declared a success. Credit:AFP

The probe, named Yutu or Jade Rabbit after the pet of Chang'e, the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology, had experienced a "mechanical control abnormality" last month, provoking an outpouring of sympathy from weibo users.

Concerns were raised that the vehicle would not survive the bitter cold of the lunar night.