Mexico City has been listed as a world heritage city by the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC), the municipal government said on Sunday.

The decision by the OWHC, whose headquarters are in Quebec, Canada, was welcomed by Ricardo Ruiz, Mexico City's interior minister. He said it would help raise the municipal government's and the public's awareness of the need to preserve and protect heritage.

Mexico City, capital of Mexico, boasts two sites of world heritage, Xochimilco and the history center, which incorporates the city's central Zocalo square and a number of buildings dating back the colonial times.

Ruiz chose the timing of announcement to outline a number of concerns over the situations of the two sites.

The first surrounds a threat in 2004 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to remove Xochimilco from the world heritage list if pollution in the Xochimilco river was not addressed.

The other worry is about the location of the history center. It is set in an area in which there have been weeks of protests by opposition supporters against the July 2 presidential election results.

However, Ruiz assured that the situations would not exert negative impacts on the two sites, adding that more could be done for heritage preservation and protection after the capital was listed as a world heritage city.

There are altogether 215 cities across the world listed by the OWHC as world heritage cities, including 125 in Europe and North America, 38 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25 in the Arab world, 20 in the Asia-Pacific region and seven in Africa.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2006)