DUBAI -- Dubai unveiled plans for a 1.8-billion-dollar "health city" on tuesday to tap into the lucrative medical and healthcare needs of almost two billion people who live between europe and eastern asia.

"Dubai healthcare city (dhc) aims at transforming dubai into a hub of world-class health care in the region," the gulf emirate's crown prince sheikh mohammad bin rashid al-maktoum said.

"This new initiative has been launched to reiterate our country's commitment to the comprehensive process of development," added sheikh mohammad, pioneer of several grandiose multi-billion-dollar schemes in dubai.

The project, which will be completed by 2010, will include a campus comprising a 300-bed university hospital, medical college, nursing school, centre for life sciences research, up to 40 clinics and hospitals, and specialised laboratories.

The medical and nursing schools will have an initial intake of 50 student doctors and 200 nurses a year.

The complex, to be built in central dubai, will also house a health resort and spa, a sports medicine department, a five-star hotel and shopping mall, and a centre integrating eastern medicine and alternative health programmes.

The city was a "step towards dubai becoming a leading hub in the global new economy," said mohammad gergawi, chairman of the dubai development and investment authority.

Gergawi said health care expenditure in the 31 countries dhc will court stood at 74 billion dollars.

"There is a market opportunity. lots of patients travel outside of the region to be treated," he said.

Dhc is one of a raft of pioneering schemes the government of dubai, one of the seven city states that make up the federation of the uae, has launched in a bid to establish itself as the gulf's business and leisure hub as oil resources run out.