This will be the first time for China to host an annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee, the Popular Science and Technology News reported Wednesday.

Participants from 175 countries and regions are expected to discuss and approve sites to be added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's world heritage list.

The upcoming conference will also feature an exhibition on cultural heritages in the Asia-Pacific region and a China forum on world heritage.

By the end of 2002, 730 sites around the world had been included in the world heritage list, 28 of which are located in China, including the Great Wall, the Potala Palace and Taishan Mountain.

Xie Ninggao, director of the World Heritage Research Center attached to Beijing University, was quoted by the paper as saying that at least 100 places in China are qualified to be on the world heritage list.

One of them, the source of China's three major rivers in Yunnan Province, will be chosen this year for applying to be a world heritage site, according to the newspaper.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2003)