MEXICO.- Leftist lawmakers have joined forces with business leaders in demanding that officials not issue building permits for a vast Chinese-backed commercial project in the Mexican Caribbean resort city of Cancun.

Ads placed Wednesday in several newspapers and signed by Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, legislators called for the "Cancun Dragon Mart" shopping center to be scrapped.

Plans call for building 722 housing units for 5,000 Chinese workers who will be employed at the shopping center in the first phase of the project, with later expansions adding "up to 2,500 housing units that will hold 10,000 Chinese citizens," the PRD legislators said.

The shopping center will display and sell Chinese goods, business leaders said.

The project is expected to cost between $180 million and $200 million, business leaders said.

Mexican investors have a 90 percent interest in the consortium building the shopping center, while Chinamex, a company registered in the Netherlands, has a 10 percent stake, press reports said.

Developers' plans call for the shopping center to be operated by a Chinese company once it is completed.