MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - The Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO said on Wednesday it was worried over the St. Petersburg government's approval of a 403-meter office tower in the city's historic center.

The authorities of Russia's second-largest city on Tuesday issued approval for the Okhta business center, owned by the oil arm of Russian energy giant Gazprom, to build the tower despite residents' protests, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday.

"As for the St. Petersburg government's decision, we are certainly worried over it," commission secretary general Grigory Ordzhonikidze said in response to the newspaper report.

He said UNESCO's World Heritage Center first voiced its concerns over the project in 2007.

Ordzhonikidze reiterated that the UN agency was categorically against the tower design, not the Okhta center itself.

During an official visit to Moscow in December 2007, Francesco Bandarin, director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, urged representatives of Gazprom Neft and its affiliate the Social and Business Center Okhta, as well as the British architectural firm RMJM, which won the competition for the tower, to find alternatives for the design of the tower.

The general secretary of the UNESCO commission, which is part of the Foreign Ministry, urged the Russian Culture Ministry and its unit monitoring the observance of laws on the protection of cultural heritage, Rosokhrankultura, to respond to the municipal government's decision.

If the skyscraper project is approved at the federal level, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee could consider the issue at its next meeting next summer, Ordzhonikidze said.