Tel Aviv  - The city of Tel Aviv will kick off its centenary celebrations next month, Mayor Ron Huldai said Sunday, telling reporters that the development of the city from a suburb of Jaffa in 1909 to Israel's cultural and economic hub was a "miracle."

The celebrations, which will cost an estimated 43 million Israeli shekels (about 10 million dollars) are slated to begin on April 4 in the city's central Rabin Square, with a performance by dancers, acrobats, theatre groups, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

The city will also be reviving its Tel Aviv marathon race as part of the celebrations on April 24, and on May 27 will host an all-night festival commemorating the city's early days.

Other events planned include an open-air performance of Verdi's Requiem by La Scala in July, and a fashion week in October.

The celebrations will conclude in December, with the opening of a new museum detailing the city's history.

Tel Aviv was officially founded on April 11, 1909, when several dozen Jewish families gathered on a beach north of Jaffa to allocate plots of land for a new neighbourhood.

Following severe riots between Arabs and Jews in Jaffa in 1921, the British authorities who had taken over governance of Palestine from the Ottomans, granted Tel Aviv municipal self-government, and in 1934 it was declared a city.

Jaffa was incorporated into the Tel Aviv municipal boundaries in 1949, after the end of the 1948-49 Arab-Israel war which boke out when the British mandate ended and Palestine's Jews declared statehood.

Approximately 400,000 people live in Tel Aviv's municipal boundaries, while the population of greater Tel Aviv - an area which includes cities and towns bordering the metropolis - numbers three million. dpa