Burj Khalifa the tallest tower at 828 meters

The financially troubled Gulf emirate of Dubai has opened the world's tallest building, a glistening concrete, glass and steel pinnacle rising 828 metres out of the desert sands. Blazing fireworks rippled up and down the massive structure after it was officially opened by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum. He renamed the building, previously known as Burj Dubai, Burj Khalifa in honour of United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan.

Sheikh Khalifa is also ruler of Abu Dhabi, the emirate which came to Dubai's help late last year to the tune of $US10 billion ($11.15 billion) to bail out troubled property developer Nakheel, a subsidiary of Dubai World.

Dubai hopes the opening of the Burj Khalifa - the latest in a series of grandiose projects - will burnish an image tarnished by its crippling debt woes.

The needle-shaped tower, described by its developer as a "vertical city" as it dwarfs existing skyscrapers, boasts new limits in design and construction.

Emaar Properties, the partly government-owned developer, had maintained the suspense about the skyscraper's final height, saying only that it exceeded 800 metres.

On Monday it said the tower had more than 200 floors, only 160 of which would be inhabited, while the remaining floors were for services.

Burj Khalifa has a total built-up area of 530,000 square metres, including 170,000 square metres of residential space and more than 28,000 square metres of prime office space, Emaar said.

This amounts to 1,044 apartments and 49 floors of office space, served by 57 lifts. It also has a hotel carrying the Georgio Armani logo.

Dubai's total debt, mostly that of its state-owned companies, amounts to $US100 billion.

Abu Dhabi, and the Abu Dhabi-based central bank of the United Arab Emirates, have extended financial aid of $US25 billion to Dubai since it announced early last year it needed to sort the debt problem of its firms.

Dubai's economy was hard hit by the global financial crisis, which turned off the tap on vital foreign financing badly needed for its breakneck-speed growth.

Recommended reading:
* 818 metres Burj Dubai now open
* Dubai Property Crash 2009
* BlackBerry users in Dubai tricked by Etisalat