Beijing will spend more than 400 million yuan (US$48.3 million) this year to repair or maintain heritage sites and cultural relics, reported The Beijing News on Saturday.

　　About 100 million yuan will be devoted to the Forbidden City, the imperial court complexes of both the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

　　The remaining funds will be provided by both the municipal government and district governments. The money will be used to restore 20 other cultural sites, including the former imperial Summer Palace in a western suburb of the capital.

　　Mei Ninghua, head for Beijing's cultural relics affairs, said the municipal government will complete maintenance work on the city's about 300 cultural relic sites before 2008. The municipality will soon draft a detailed renovation work plan for the next 15 to 20 years.

　　According to earlier media reports, Beijing will pour 600 million yuan into maintaining and renovating more than 100 sites of historic interest across the city by 2008.

　　The restoration project in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Summer Games has been noticed by foreign governments and firms.

　　"Both international bodies and foreign companies have suggested some good projects and we have begun cooperating with them," Mei said.

　　He also said there are a host of risks at the sites, but experts are optimistic.

　　A probe by the municipal cultural relics bureau found about 10,000 Beijing families live in homes considered heritage sites, which authorities say damages the buildings.

　　For example in 2004, minor fires broke out in a housing complex that was once a government site dating to the 1920s.

　　In an earlier article the newspaper reported that more than 60 percent of Beijing's heritage sites, including some on UNESCO's World Heritage List, are used for offices or housing.

　　Many buildings on the grounds of the Summer Palace are occupied and buildings near the Temple of Heaven - built in the 15th century - are used as schools, shops or factories, it said.

　　He Shuzong, an official with the national heritage authority, said, "The occupation not only damages the relics, but jeopardizes the relationship between society and relics."