NANNING, Oct. 19(Xinhuanet)-- The 2005 International Human Settlements meeting is scheduled to be held in Nanning, capital city of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from Nov. 9 to 11. So far more than 300 delegates from 34 countries have signed up to attend the meeting.

Jointly sponsored by the United Nations Human Settlements Program(UN-Habitat) and the Chinese Ministry of Construction, the meeting will include one plenary session and three parallel talks on the plan of sustainable urban development, land use and house construction.

Participants may also take the opportunity to showcase the development achievements of their respective cities at an exhibition to be staged on the sideline of the meeting.

UN-Habitat, established in 1978, usually picks up a settlement-related theme for the meeting and carefully chooses the hosting city to match the theme each year.

Nanning was delegated with the responsibility because of its sound records in the human settlements field, said Huang Dingjian, an official with the Guangxi Regional Construction Bureau.

The city will be the fifth Chinese city to host an international congregation on human settlements, after Chengdu, Hangzhou, Baotou and Weihai.

In 2000, Nanning was awarded a Dubayy Model Honor for human settlement issued by the United Nations, and pocketed a national human settlements award a year later. Enditem