The friendly neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi, which has been bailing Dubai out, is still flush with petrodollars.

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Syriana, he said, took longer than normal to pass because his office felt it required a second opinion from authorities in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the seven-emirate federation.

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Naysayers claim that the place has overextended itself, that many of its vaunted projects are real-estate scams, and that the emirate can afford to spend so wildly only because the giant stores of oil in neighbouring Abu Dhabi, the anchor-state of the United Arab Emirates, offer a guarantee against default.

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