By Francis Markus in Taipei

A Pakistani man, said to be the world's tallest man, has arrived in Taiwan to spend four months living in the Guinness World Record museum in the island's central city, Taichung.

Naseer Ahmaad Soomro, 29, who measures more than 2.36 metres, is being billed not just as an exhibit, but also as a sporting ambassador to try to promote exercise among Taiwanese school children.

Mr Soomro, from Karachi, is to become, quite literally, a museum exhibit when he takes up resident for four months at the Guinness museum in the central-Taiwanese city of Taichung.

The museum is a quirky landmark on an island notable for its architectural drabness. Its main building is shaped like a letter 'A' to represent the spine of the record book, which is its central theme.

Smaller buildings are in the form of a football and a hamburger.

A sporting ambassador

Staff at the museum have prepared a room for him with a specially constructed bed, big enough for about 20 visiting children to sit on, and other furniture to match.

Mr Soomro is not the first record holder employed as a crowd-puller in the museum, which is full of life-size models of Guinness book personalities and their effects, but he will play what organisers say is a special role, dividing his time between meeting museum visitors and going round local schools.

He is being called a sporting ambassador, who it is hoped will promote exercise on an island where many people lead a strikingly inactive lifestyle.

One of his favourite sports - basketball - has a big following in Taiwan, but it is fair to say his other passion - cricket - is only shared by a tiny expatriate minority.