A senior engineer in charge of the controversial Three Gorges Dam on China's Yangtze River has denied that the project is suffering from construction defects.

The engineer, Li Junlin of the Three Gorges Development Corporation has told the BBC that stringent safety procedures are in place.

Critics of the dam say it will damage the environment and they've condemned the forced relocation of more than a million people.

Last year officials acknowledged that corruption had affected parts of the Three Gorges project, but Mr Li says the dam is being built to rigorous standards, and is intended to last for five hundred years.

He says it will control flooding on the Yangtze and generate electricity.