St. George's mayor Henry Hayward has defended the old town's inclusion as a World Heritage Site following criticism from a leading British newspaper.

An editorial in The Independent last week said that Unesco's official list of wonders of the world had grown too big and had a Eurocentric bias.

"There are now too many World Heritage Sites. The title should be reserved for the truly wondrous, such as the Acropolis, Stonehenge and the Taj Mahal," reads the editorial. "Kew Gardens or, say, the fortifications of St. George's in Bermuda, do not fit the bill, fascinating as they are."

The editorial argued that with 721 World Heritage Sites, the designation was losing its significance.

"I can see where this individual is coming from," Mr. Hayward said. "One faces the danger that if they become too common, the designation will lose its significance.

"I certainly wouldn't compare the Taj Mahal with the town of St. George's. But everything is relative. St. George's is the typical example of how Bermuda architecture has developed over 400 years."

Not only that, he said, the board which approved St. George's application to be listed as a World Heritage Site, fully understood Bermuda's importance in the development of North America.

"They spent an hour and a half discussing the fact that if it wasn't for Bermuda and its strategic positioning, the Americans might be speaking Spanish or Dutch or French," Mr. Hayward said.

St. George's forts, built to protect the town - the oldest continuously inhabited English speaking settlement in the New World - are also included in the designation.