China's Mount Wutai, Italy's Dolomites join Heritage List

Madrid
The sacred Buddhist mountain of Wutai in China and Italy's Dolomite Mountains, an area of"outstanding natural beauty", were among four new sites named today to UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The tidal flats and wetlands of the Wadden Sea in Germany and the Netherlands, and Cape Verde's 15th century town of Cidade Velha also became World Heritage Sites, UNESCO announced.

It also inscribed the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in the Philippines as an"extension" to the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, which joined the World Heritage List in 1993. The announcements were made on the fifth day of a meeting of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in Seville, Spain.

The committee, which is meeting until June 30, is deciding which of 27 sites deserve to be added to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's heritage list.

UNESCO said Mount Wutai, a"sacred Buddhist mountain" in northern China that includes 53 monasteries, was named as a" cultural landscape.