Shanghai's top Communist Party official has responded for the first time to allegations that visitor numbers at the city's World Expo 2010 are being artificially inflated.
In an interview with the city's official media, Shanghai party secretary Yu Zhengsheng insisted the government would not tamper with the figures to boost the mega-fair's attendance.
'No matter what happens, we will not resort to administrative tricks to organise [a larger] audience,' Yu said.
The six-month-long fair - the largest and most expensive expo ever - drew far smaller crowds than expected during May, its opening month.
Crowd numbers began rising steadily in June and the fair is now on course to hit its target attendance of 70 million over its 184-day run.
However, there is a widely held belief among staff at national pavilions that the government has been ferrying large groups of retirees and students into the park to make up numbers - or simply faking official attendance statistics.
Conspiracy theorists were given a boost when the total number of visitors reached 35 million on the morning of August 1 - exactly half the projected attendance the day after the halfway point.
