HANOI: Vietnam's capital on Sunday kicked off celebrations leading up to its 1,000th birthday in 2010, when

Hanoi hopes to have its historic heart recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site.

Traditional artistic shows, parades and a photo exhibition rang in festivities before Hanoi was set to start a 1,000-day countdown at midnight on a large digital clock placed next to its landmark Hoan Kiem Lake.

Bells in the city's Buddhist pagodas and Christian churches were due to ring at the stroke of midnight (1700 GMT on Sunday) to mark the event across the northern city on the Red River, authorities said.

Students volunteers were sweeping streets and citizens were urged to do their part on a banner that read: “1,000 days for a green, clean and beautiful capital, toward the 1,000 year celebration of Thang Long-Hanoi.”

Hanoi was chosen as the capital of the Dai Viet kingdom, now Vietnam, in the autumn of 1010 by founding king Ly Thai To, who named the city Thang Long, or Ascending Dragon, marking the end of a millennium of Chinese rule.

The date chosen for Hanoi's official 1,000-year birthday in 2010 is October 10, the day revolutionary troops under Ho Chi Minh liberated Hanoi in 1954, ending the French colonial era in the Southeast Asian country.

Central Hanoi today — despite urban pressures and worsening traffic — has retained much of its charm, with old houses and temples overlooking tranquil lakes and crumbling French colonial villas lining leafy boulevards.

Heritage expert William Logan has written that Hanoi has been recognised as “one of the great heritage townscapes of Asia,” retaining elements of its Chinese and Vietnamese feudal past, the French era and Eastern bloc influences.

Communist Vietnam in 2006 made a submission to have Hanoi's central historical complex listed as a World Heritage site by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, and a decision is expected by 2010.

Under its original proposal, Vietnam listed the ruins of Hanoi's ancient citadel, discovered during construction work in 2002, and sites in and around the Old Quarter, a maze of 36 streets run by craft and merchant guilds.

Japan has offered to provide financial and technical aid to restore the citadel site via a Japan-UNESCO fund, state media and officials have said.

Hanoi's population is set to grow from around three million to five million people in coming years, and experts warn that urban planners must strike a fine balance between modernising Hanoi and preserving its unique character.

Authorities are planning a host of new infrastructure — satellite towns, three urban rail lines with French and Chinese funding, World Bank-backed ring roads, new highways and several more bridges across the Red River.—AFP