We propose that the upper Hubbard band (electronlike) and the Zhang-Rice singlet band (holelike) are two essential components in describing low-energy excitations of electron-doped cuprate superconductors. We find that the gap between these two bands is significantly smaller than the charge-transfer gap measured by optics and is further reduced upon doping. This indicates that the charge fluctuation is strong and the system is in the intermediate correlation regime. A two-band model is derived. In the limit that the intraband and interband hopping integrals are equal to each other, this model is equivalent to the unconstrained t-J model with on-site Coulomb repulsions. © 2009 The American Physical Society.