However, the controversial dam will not be fully operational until 2009, when all its generators are installed.

The wall of the dam has risen to its full 185-metre height and power generated by its turbines will help alleviate an electricity shortage in China's booming Yangtze delta downstream, a construction official said yesterday.

Reporters visiting the dam on the Yangtze's middle reaches saw workers putting the final touches on the gargantuan structure, which stretches for 1,500 miles with a width of 15 metres.

Less than 1,000 cubic metres of reinforced concrete is left to be poured to fill the wall out of a total of 16.1 million cubic metres, officials said.

Launched in 1993, the dam has gone ahead despite complaints about its high cost and warnings of environmental damage.