An international line-up of newborn babies helped Scotland to usher in 2008 yesterday.

The first arrival was at St John's Hospital in Livingston where Anwar and Sumraina Akram welcomed their second child Muhammad into the world at 12.11am.

Dad Anwar, 32, an IT security consultant, and mum Sumraina, 28, a housewife, were overjoyed after Sumraina gave birth to 8lbs 7oz Muhammad.

The couple already have a six-year-old daughter, Hira.

Mrs Akram said: "I can't believe my son is the first baby born in 2008. It feels like a great honour."

Edinburgh's first baby was born at the Simpson maternity unit to a Chinese couple, Wie Ping Wang, 36, and her husband Zhiyu, at 12.50 am.

Mrs Wang said: "I feel very lucky. She's a beautiful little girl. Everything went really well, and I can't say enough about the staff here.

"Zhiyu is extremely thrilled about the birth of his first daughter. He's managed to speak to some of our family back in China and they are also very happy about the news.

"We've decided to name our daughter Christina because of the time of year she was born."

Mr Wang, 39, said: "At the time, I could hear all the fireworks going off around about, but all I could think about was the two women in my life."

Not far behind was baby Keith Livingston, who was born at 12.51am at the maternity unit of the Royal Alexandra in Paisley to Michelle Davidson and Stewart Livingston.

One of Aberdeen Maternity's first babies was born to Mahintha Srimayooran when her baby girl arrived at 3am.

Aaron Farley, whose parents Michelle and Roger are engineers from Melbourne, Australia, arrived at the same hospital at 4.21am.

The baby had been due last week but the couple had to postpone their Hogmanay plans when Mrs Farley, 33, went into labour at 2pm on Monday. They think the Granite City's Hogmanay celebrations may have helped to bring Aaron into the world.

His mother said: "We could clearly hear the fireworks going off from the maternity ward - maybe it was those that helped push Aaron out."

At the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital in Glasgow a was baby boy born at 12.29am. In Dundee, baby Holly Shields was born at 1.55am at Ninewells Hospital.