A vice mayor of Shanghai defended the Chinese commercial hub's treatment of thousands of people who are being forced from their homes to make way for the 2010 World Expo, saying they are paid appropriate compensation.

The moving of the 18,000 households for the exposition, which is expected to cost 10.6 billion yuan ($1.32 billion) to hold, will be complete before the end of June, said Yang Xiong, who is also Deputy Director of the Shanghai Expo Executive Committee.

"We are committed to protecting the legitimate rights of the residents," Yang told a news conference in Beijing. "The quality of housing where they have been moved to is extremely good."

Some residents of the areas to be redeveloped for the expo, mostly in grim industrial parts of the city near the banks of the Huangpu river, have complained they have been forcibly relocated and not given adequate compensation for high-cost Shanghai.

But Yang said compensation is paid according to market rates, and the authorities had received over 700 letters of thanks from relocated residents.

China's first Expo, touted by Shanghai's government as a coming-of-age party for the east Asian boomtown, involves the redevelopment of more than 5 square km (1.9 square miles) on either side of the river.

Beijing has also been tapped for the mass demolition of houses for the 2008 Summer Olympics.