Taipei - The Taipei 101, currently the world's tallest building, went dark for one hour Saturday evening to observe Earth Hour, the global campaign to raise awareness about global warming.

The 508-metre-tall Taipei 101 turned off all its exterior lights - except its red aircraft warning lights - and all the interior lights from the 6th to the 89th floors, which are occupied by private firms and offices.

The lights in the basement shopping mall and from the first to the 5th floors containing shops and restaurants remained on.

"We do this to show our support to the Earth Hour initiated by the (nature organization) WWF. The 89 international firms that have leased office space and thousands of their staff members agreed to turn off light for one hour," Taipei 101 spokesman Michael Liu told reporters.

"The electricity bill we save is small - only 10,500 Taiwan dollars (300 US dollars), but we want to use our influence to raise awareness about global warming," he said.

Earth Hour was launched in 2007 by WWF which urged cities, offices and landmark building to go dark for one hour from 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm local time on March 28 every year.

On Saturday, thousands of landmark buildings around the world - including the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Colosseum in Rome, the Sydney Opera House as well as the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt - went dark for one hour in response to the Earth Hour campaign. (dpa)