Dubai opens world's tallest tower

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Dubai opened the world's tallest skyscraper on Monday in a blaze of fireworks, then added a final flourish: It renamed the half-mile-high tower for the head of neighbouring Abu Dhabi, whose billions bailed out Dubai amid last year's financial crisis.

Long known as Burj Dubai - Arabic for "Dubai Tower" - the building rises 2,717 feet (828 meters) from the desert. The $1.5 billion "vertical city" of luxury apartments and offices and a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani also plans to have the world's highest mosque (158th floor) and swimming pool (76th floor).

Its backers wanted the skyscraper to be a monument to the boundless, can-do spirit of Dubai - one of a federation of seven small sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates - but the timing could not be worse. Property prices in parts of Dubai collapsed by nearly half in the past year, the result of easy credit and overbuilding during a real estate bubble that has since burst.

Riding to the rescue was Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of oil-rich neighbour Abu Dhabi, which pumped tens of billions of dollars into Dubai last year as it struggled to pay enormous debts.

As officials opened the tapering metal-and-glass spire with fireworks and multicolored lights, they unexpectedly announced it would be renamed Burj Khalifa, to honor the Abu Dhabi leader who is also president of the UAE.

Thousands of cheering, clapping spectators watched as a tally projected on huge screens at the opening ceremony revealed the tower's most closely guarded secret - its height of 2,717 feet. That made it more than 1,000 feet higher than the skyscraper known as Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which at 1,667 feet had been the world's tallest since 2004.

The tallest building in the United States, the Willis Tower in Chicago, comes in at 1,451 feet, although with its spire it measures 1,729 feet and would be considered even taller than Taipei 101. Before they were destroyed in the Sept, 11, 2001, attacks, the World Trade Center towers both topped 1,360 feet. The Freedom Tower being planned for the site will measure 1,776 feet, with completion estimated in 2013.

The exact number of floors for the Burj Khalifa is not known, and could reflect how the developer chose to calculate the total.

Mohammed Alabbar, chairman of the tower's developer Emaar Properties, initially said Monday it had "more than 200" stories, but he later backtracked to more than 165 inhabitable floors, given its tapered top. Promotional materials sent before the tower's opening said it contained 160 stories.

Developers say they are confident in the safety of the tower, which is nearly twice the height of New York's Empire State Building.

Greg Sang, Emaar's director of projects, said the Burj Khalifa has "refuge floors" at 25 to 30 story intervals that are more fire resistant and have separate air supplies in case of emergency.

Its reinforced concrete structure, he said, makes it stronger than steel-frame skyscrapers.

- AP