The World Heritage Committee (WHC) overlooking conservation of global heritage sites will convene its annual meeting next week in Durban, South Africa, to review 42 proposed sites for inscription on the prestigious World Heritage List.

Extensions for nine sites that have already been inscribed will also be proposed during the 29th session of the WHC under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), according to the organization's official website.

The proposed sites include 28 cultural sites, 10 natural sites and 4 mixed sites presented by 44 countries, including Albania, China and the host country South Africa.

Four countries, namely Bahrain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Gabon and Moldova, could for the first time see one of their sites join the list, said the committee.

The Durban meeting is the first WHC session held in the sub-Saharan Africa since 1972, when the UNESCO approved a convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage.

The convention's 178 member countries elect 21 representatives to form the WHC, which designates sites around the world with outstanding cultural values or unique natural beauty and inscribes them on the World Heritage List.

With only 64 cultural sites, 33 natural and 3 mixed sites inscribed, Africa is still "under-represented on the list," the committee said.

Meanwhile, 17 natural and cultural sites in Africa have been put on the List of World Heritage in Danger, almost half of the world's total.

The committee said 35 sites currently on the List of World Heritage in Danger face serious threat either from chemical or mining, pollution, pillaging, war, poorly managed tourism or poaching.

The WHC will organize a special event, called Partners for Africa, during the meeting from July 10 to focus on Africa's heritage and the action taken by UNESCO partners to safeguard it.

Credibility of the list, conservation of the sites, capacity-building and raising awareness among the public and youth are among topics discussed.

To date, the 1972 convention protects 788 sites "of outstanding universal value" located in 134 member countries and includes 611 cultural sites, 154 natural and 23 mixed sites.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2005)