Vietnam will ban jet skis and halt resort development in Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site, following a request by the UN cultural organization, an official has said.

Ngo Hung, head of the Ha Long Bay Management Authority, also told the media that authorities would not grant new fish and shrimp farm permits in the bay and speed up plans to resettle some island residents to the mainland

Ha Long Bay, located in the Gulf of Tonkin about 160km east of the capital Hanoi, is one of the country's main tourist draws.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the bay a World Heritage site in 1994.

Its 1,600 islands and islets form a spectacular seascape of mostly uninhabited limestone pillars made famous by the 1992 French movie Indochine.

At a meeting in New Zealand last month, UNESCO urged the bay management to "address growing urban, industrial and tourism development pressures."

It asked Vietnam to ban jet-skis in the bay's core zone and to "cancel plans to develop a tourism resort on Lam Bo Island and major infrastructure in the Cua Van floating village".

The Quang Ninh province people's committee and the authority adopted the recommendations last weekend, Vietnam News Agency reported.

UNESCO also asked Vietnam to prepare a report by February 2009 on the bay's conservation and the impact of the construction of a new coastal highway.

Source: Agencies