Shanghai, China's commercial hub, plans to add a giant Ferris wheel to its ultra-modern skyline by 2005, unseating the British wheel as the world's largest, Shanghai Daily said on Wednesday.

The city plans to build a 200-meter-tall (660 foot) Ferris wheel as part of plans to spruce up its Bund riverfront, the newspaper said on Wednesday.

That would top the London Eye by 65 meters (213 ft).

Construction of the Shanghai wheel would begin before the end of the year and be complete in three years, the newspaper said.

The London Eye, part-owned by British Airways, is 135 metres (450 feet) tall and is now the world's largest observation wheel, according to the Guinness Book of World Records' Web site (http://www.guinnessrecords.com).

The Shanghai wheel would also top Las Vegas' plans to put a 560 foot (170 meter) wheel in the middle of its casino-lined main strip.

The US project's developer, Voyager Entertainment International, said in April it hoped the Las Vegas wheel would be the world's largest.

( People's Daily July 4, 2002)