DUBAI, Nov. 28 (AFP) – The plan by state-owned Dubai World to suspend payments on its large debts highlights the sharp economic reversal in the once-booming Gulf Emirate.

A timeline of events since the global economic crisis began:
2008

– Oct. 5: The frenetic expansion of Dubai appears relentless as state-owned Nakheel announces plans for a building more than one kilometer tall, to top world record-holder Burj Dubai, already 688 meters in height and still rising.

– Oct. 6: State-owned Meeras unveils proposals for the $95-billion Jumeirah Gardens city-within-a-city project, to rival Nakheel's flagship Palm Jumeirah artificial islands and The World, a 300-island development.

– Nov. 4: Dubai Mall, a shopping centre with room for 1,200 shops, finally starts trading after the opening was repeatedly delayed from the end of 2006.

– Nov. 26: Cruise liner Queen Elizabeth 2 arrives in Dubai for transformation into a floating hotel.

– Nov. 29: The Dubai Financial Market's losses since the start of the year reach 67 percent.

– Nov. 30: Nakheel announces it has fired 500 staff and will be scaling back work on some projects. Only one of the three planned Palm Jumeirah islands has been completed.

– Dec. 4: Meeras says it is reviewing plans for its $95-billion Jumeirah Gardens project.

2009

– Feb. 5: Projects worth $582 billion or 45 percent of the value of all developments, have been put on hold in Dubai or the other members of the United Arab Emirates, market research company Proleads says in a study.

– Feb. 22: The Dubai government says the central bank of the neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi has subscribed the first $10 billion of a $20-billion bond program to help Dubai meet its debts.

– March 17: Ratings agency Standard and Poor's Corp. says Dubai's economy may contract in 2009 after years of boom.

– Aug. 3: House prices in Dubai were down by a half at the end of June from a year earlier, according to UAE-based consultancy Colliers International.

– Sept. 9: Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashad al-Maktoum, says'' I assure you that Dubai is all right. The UAE is all right. We are not worried.''

– The Gulf region's first metro urban rail line opens in Dubai.

– Oct. 15: Ratings agency Standard and Poor's estimates that Dubai state-related companies are due to repay $50 billion – 70 percent of the emirate's annual gross domestic product – within the next three years.

– Oct 15: State-owned Dubai World, parent company of Nakheel and international ports operator DP World, says it has cut back its workforce by 15 percent to below 70,000.

– Nov. 5: Owners of Burj Dubai tower announce it will finally open on January 4.

– Nov. 9: Sheikh Mohammed says the economic crisis ''will not deter Dubai's ambitions of implementing its development plans.''

– Nov. 25: Dubai World, with reported liabilities of $59 billion, says it plans to suspend payment on its debt for six months.

– Standard and Poor's says Dubai World's action amounts to a debt default. It and Moody's both downgrade companies in the group by several notches.