The city of Yangzhou in east China won the United Nations' Habitat Scroll of Honor award for 2006 on Wednesday for work in preserving the old city and improving the residential environment.

City officials received the award, given by the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), at a ceremony in the Volga River city of Kazan as part of global celebrations of the World Habitat Day, which fell on Monday.

The Yangzhou municipal government in Jiangsu Province is awarded for "conservation of the old city and improving the residential environment," the UN-Habitat said in a statement on its official web site.

"The municipal government has been working continuously to protect the integrity of the old city as industrialization in the city advances," Ji Jianye, the city's top official, told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

Over the past five years, the city has solved housing problems for over 100,000 residents, Ji said.

The Habitat Scroll of Honor award, launched in 1989, is the world's most prestigious human settlements award given by the United Nations to honor individuals and institutions that have been instrumental in improving the living conditions in urban centers around the world.

Individuals and institutions from Brazil, France, Egypt, Italy, the Philippines and Russia also won this year's award.

(Xinhua News Agency October 5, 2006)