The skyscraper, being built by South Korea’s Samsung and scheduled for completion next year, is one of a string of grandiose projects taking shape in Dubai.

The statement did not reveal the final projected height or number of storeys of the tower, which Emaar has kept secret since launching the project in January 2004.

But Emaar officials have said the skyscraper, which will have cost one billion dollars by the time it is completed at the end of 2008, will be more than 700 metres (2,296 feet) tall and have more than 160 storeys.

Burj Dubai “became the tallest building in the world in just 1,276 days,” the developers said..

Burj Dubai is the centrepiece of a 20-billion-dollar venture featuring the construction of a new district, “Downtown Burj Dubai,” that will house 30,000 apartments and the world’s largest shopping mall.

Emaar is seeing its profits climb thanks to a construction boom. It posted a first half net profit of 893 million dollars for an on-year rise of seven percent.

But the real estate giant is facing competition in Dubai itself, where the city state’s other property development major, Nakheel, has announced it will build “Al Burj” or “The Tower” — whose projected height also remains a closely guarded secret.

Nakheel is behind such feats as three palm tree-shaped man-made islands and “The World”, a cluster of some 300 islands looking like a blurred vision of the planet’s nations being built off Dubai’s coast.