Dubai's Nakheel eyes world's tallest tower

By John Irish

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai's palm island developer Nakheel is mulling plans to outbuild rival Emaar Properties EMAR.DU with a near mile-high tower, eclipsing the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai.

Nakheel is looking at constructing a tower "higher than the competition", Chief Financial Officer Kar Tung Quek told the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit.

The developer of about $60 billion worth of projects is finalizing plans for a 1.4 km (0.87 miles)-tall tower, the Middle East Economic Digest reported in its latest issue without identifying its sources.

The Burj Dubai reached 636 meters earlier this month and is expected to be over 800 meters high when it is completed in September 2009 after Emaar Properties said it would increase the height.

"We are looking at the technical and financial feasibility study of doing it," Quek said, declining to give a height for Nakheel's tower.

"The higher the tower is, the slower it is to build," Quek said.

State-owned Nakheel is best known for building artificial palm-shaped islands off the coast of Dubai.

Competition for the title of the world's tallest tower is heating up in the Gulf Arab region as real estate developers benefit from a near-seven-fold increase in oil prices.

Kingdom Holding Co 4280.SE, controlled by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, was planning a mile-high tower in Jeddah, although it is understood to have scaled down the project's size.

Kuwait has said the Burj Mubarak in its City of Silk development would also be more than 1 kilometer high.

(Editing by Thomas Atkins and David Cowell)