Claims that the priceless 2,000-year-old terracotta army in the ancient city of Xi'an, northwestern China, is in danger of disintegrating due to weathering have been denied by experts and management of the site.

In an interview with Xinhua Thursday, Wu Yongqi, director of the Qin Dynasty Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, denied recent media reports which allege that these warriors would vanish within a century because of air pollution.

"The terracotta warriors and horses are perfectly safe and so they will remain in 100 years," said Wu, based in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

In fact, the museum has carried out a 240,000-US-dollar research project on air pollution and its damage to the relics.

"We're carrying out the research project for precautionary protection, not for measures to deal with existing problems," said Zhao Kun, director of the museum's protection department.

He said the preservation work in the museum is done "in a proper way" and its preservation hall, where humidity and temperature can be adjusted, protects the heritage pieces from wind, rain and the scorching sun.

The museum set up in 2001 China's first anti-mould laboratory for heritage protection and has worked out state-of-the-art anti-mould technologies, acknowledged Zhao.

In 2002, the museum's technological research results for preserving the colors on the army passed the approval by experts from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, solving the most knotty problem.

The Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) warriors, popularly known as the world's Eighth Wonder, were discovered in 1974 in Lintong, an eastern district of Xi'an. They were created to guard the tomb of Qin Emperor Shihuang.

Located one kilometer east of the emperor's tomb, more than 7,000 clay warriors and 500 clay horses were found in three burial pits, which are now all enclosed and protected in steel-framed, concrete halls.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2005)