A Vietnamese jewelry firm has started work on the biggest Buddha statue to date from a 35-ton block of jade, the Vietnam News Agency said.

President Nguyen Minh Triet attended a ceremony to kick off the project on Monday, along with Vietnam's Buddhist patriarch, Thich Pho Tue, and several hundred monks.

Triet said the giant statue would be built as a religious symbol and would be a contribution to culture that would last for generations, the agency said. "This will be a piece of art of a great cultural value," he said.

The statue, being built by Than Chau Ngoc Viet Gemstones and Jewelry Co, will measure 3 meters high, 2 meters wide, weigh 16 metric tons and be the biggest jade statue of Buddha when completed in 2011. The firm has hired a team of foreign artisans and sculptors for the project.

The jewelry firm bought the 35-ton hunk of jade at a rare gemstones fair in Myanmar for $2 million last year and imported it to Vietnam in October, media reports said.

The world's current biggest Buddha statue is 2.5 meters high and weighs 3.9 tons, according to Vietnamese media.

The jewelry firm was reported to plan to get the statue into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Buddhism is Vietnam's dominant religion. The communist Asian nation has embarked on market reforms in recent years, demonstrating solid economic growth.

BANGKOK, January 20 (RIA Novosti)