New York  - The Beijing Vantone Real Estate Company planned to sign Thursday a lease for five floors in the new World Trade Center's Freedom Tower, making it the building's first corporate tenant, news reports said.

The US government and New York City's agencies have all agreed to lease space in the 592-meter tower, which is being built on the same land where the original twin towers were destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Construction of Freedom Tower is expected to finish in 2012 with material and technology that authorities hope would withstand another terrorist attack.

More than 2,900 people perished when the 110-storey twin towers at the World Trade Center collapsed to the ground after being hit by two terrorist-hijacked commercial airplanes.

The owner of Freedom Tower, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has had difficulty attracting tenants for various reasons, one of which being security. The real estate company is one of the largest in China. (dpa)