DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Developers of a 1,680-foot
(512-meter) skyscraper still under construction in oil-rich Dubai claimed
that it has become the world's tallest building, surpassing Taiwan's Taipei
101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet (508 meters) since
2004.

The Burj Dubai is expected to be finished by the end of 2008 and its
planned final height has been kept secret. The state-owned development
company Emaar Properties, one of the main builders in rapidly developing
Dubai, said Saturday only that the tower would stop somewhere above 2,275
feet (693 meters).

When completed, the skyscraper will feature more than 160 floors, 56
elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive
corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani's first hotel,
and a 124th floor observation platform.

After North American and Asian cities marked their 20th century economic
booms with skyscrapers, the Gulf grew eager to show off its success with
ever taller buildings. In Dubai, long an oil-rich Gulf symbol of rapid
economic growth, the building reflects the city's hunger for global
prestige.

"It's a symbol of Dubai as a city of the world," said Greg Sang, the
project director for Emaar Properties.

Mohammed Ali Alabbar, chairman of Emaar, said it will be an
architectural and engineering masterpiece of concrete, steel and glass.
Dubai has "resisted the usual and has inspired to build a global icon," he
said.

"It's a human achievement without equal."

The $1 billion (euro720 million) skyscraper is in the heart of downtown
Dubai, a 500-acre (200-hectare) development area worth $20 billion
(euro14.5 billion). Construction, which began just 1,276 days ago, has been
frenzied -- at times, one storey rises every three days.

The tip of the Burj's spire will be seen for 60 miles (100 kilometers),
developers say. But Sang knows it will not dominate the world's skyline
forever.

"It's a fact of life that, at some point, someone else will build a
taller building," he said. "There's a lot of talk of other tall buildings,
but five years into Burj Dubai's construction, no one's started building
them yet," he said.

Previous skyscraper record-holders include New York's Empire State
Building at 1,250 feet (381 meters); Shanghai's Jin Mao Building at 1,381
feet (421 meters); Chicago's Sears Tower at 1,451 feet (442 meters); and
Malaysia's Petronas Towers at 1,483 feet (452 meters).

The Burj will let the Middle East reclaim the world's tallest structure.
Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza, built around 2500 B.C., held the title with
its 481 feet (147 meters) until the Eiffel Tower in Paris was built in 1889
at a height of 985 feet (300 meters), or 1,023 feet (312 meters) including
the flag pole.

The company says the Burj will fulfill the Chicago-based Council on Tall
Buildings and Urban Habitat's four criteria for the tallest building: the
height of the structural top, the highest occupied floor, the roof's top,
and the spire's tip, pinnacle, antenna, mast or flag pole.

For now, the unattractive brownish concrete skeleton jutting into
Dubai's humid skies lacks any aura of a masterpiece. Rising 141 floors with
a mass of surrounding cranes and girders, it has no windows, glass or steel
yet.

The architects and engineers are American and the main building
contractor is South Korean.

Most of the 4,000 laborers are Indian. They toil around the clock in
Dubai's sizzling summer with no set minimum wage. Human rights groups
regularly protest against labor abuse in Dubai, but local media rarely
report such complaints.