The embattled holy Shia city of Samarra and the sparkling white sails of the Sydney Opera House are among the newest additions to the United Nations list of the world’s natural and cultural treasures.

The Red Fort in Delhi, the historic port district of Bordeaux and the Richtersveld desert in South Africa were also named on the Unesco World Heritage list.

In a warning to any country that fails to protect such treasures, the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman became the first site to be deleted from the list after authorities reduced the size of the reserve to 10 per cent of its former acreage.

Australia hailed the international recognition for its most famous man-made landmark, the final vindication of a once-controversial and much derided construction project. John Howard, the Prime Minister, paid tribute to the “daring” of its Danish creator, Jorn Utson, who heard his unfinished masterpiece written off as “albino turtles mating” and “nuns packing a scrum” before abandoning the project halfway through and vowing never to set foot again in Australia.

An Australian architect completed the building in 1973 but installed acoustics that were unsuited to opera performances. Mr Utson has never visited the finished building, but in 1999 he reached an agreement to draw up a list of design principles for its preservation.

The ancient Iraqi city also named on the list was, in contrast, preparing for violence. Samarra, the ninth-century Islamic capital that contains several archaeological treasures, was a centre of sectarian warfare in February last year when suspected al-Qaeda insurgents bombed the Shia Askari mosque, destroying its golden dome and setting off revenge attacks on Sunni holy places. In another attack this month, two 36-metre (120ft) minarets were destroyed.

Yesterday Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the antiAmerican Shia cleric, vowed to go ahead with a protest march to the devastated shrine next week. The Iraqi Government has urged people not to join the march, fearing violence.

Unesco criticised Oman for failing to protect the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary, where the oryx population has dwindled from 450 to 65 in ten years, and now stands on the brink of extinction. The committee will continue its meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand, until Monday, to weigh up the merits of another three dozen contenders.

New arrivals

Cultural sites added to the list include

Visegrad bridge in Bosnia; Rideau canal in Canada; the old town of Corfu; the 11th-century vineyard terraces of Lavaux, Switzerland; the rock carvings at Twyfelfontein in Namibia; the Kaiping Diaolou and villages of China; the silver mines of Iwami Ginzan in Japan, and the Parthian Fortresses of Nisa in Turkmenistan