First, this heat-stricken Gulf emirate built a snowdome in 2005. Now Dubai will offer a refrigerated beach, reported The Times.

Heat has never been an obstacle for this rich state in creating cool attractions.

Plans are already underway to create this first-of-its-kind beach next to the new Palazzo Versace Hotel so that guests of this posh place can walk across the sand comfortably, without burning their toes.

Versace, the renowned fashion house, is putting the finishing touches on the design of this beach which is being built in Dubai where summer temperatures average 40°C and can reach 50°C.

The beach will have a network of pipes beneath its sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface. The adjacent swimming pool will also be refrigerated.

There are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.

The hotel, which is due to open late next year or early 2010, will be controlled by thermostats linked up to computers, said The Daily Mail.

Can it really work? Founder and president of Palazzo Versace, Mr Soheil Abedian, is convinced that it can remain cool and sustainable.

He said: 'We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want.'

A source added: 'The super-rich want pure luxury. They don't want to walk on scalding sand.'

Hyder Consulting, a British construction consultancy, is overseeing the engineering on the project.

Mr Abedian's firm began its association with Versace a decade ago with the idea of creating the first chain of luxury fashion-branded lifestyle resorts.

His first Palazzo Versace is already operating on Australia's Gold Coast - where movie stars Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey have stayed.

The Dubai hotel will be the second and the 10-storey hotel will have 213 rooms, several with their own internal swimming pools, plus 169 apartments. Fifteen more such hotels are planned.

Competition to serve the world's rich is getting intense, especially in Dubai. The city already boasts the world's first seven-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, while Armani, a competitor with Versace, is building a similarly branded Dubai hotel.

Bad for environment?

Though the super-rich are smiling at yet another playground for them to experience, environmentalists are infuriated.

The revelation comes as more than 11,000 politicians, green campaigners and others gather in Poznan, Poland, for the latest talks on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Ms Rachel Noble, the campaigns officer at UK's Tourism Concern, which promotes sustainable tourism, said that the carbon generated by such projects would contribute to climate change, whose worst effects would be felt by the poor.

About 60% of Dubai's power bill is for air-conditioning.

She said: 'Dubai is like a bubble world where the things that are worrying the rest of the world, like climate change, are simply ignored so that people can continue their destructive lifestyles.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 16, 2008.