BEIJING(AP)01/28 -- A new chemical factory may open jobs for some of the people being forced to relocate by construction of the world's largest dam, the state news agency reported Sunday.

China will spend $108 million to build the chemical factory in Fuling in Sichuan province, along the huge reservoir being created by the Three Gorges Dam project, the Xinhua news agency reported.

More than 1 million people are being resettled to make way for the dam's 400-mile-long reservoir, stretching from the dam 25 miles west of Yichang, in central Hubei province, to Chongqing, in Sichuan.

The dam under construction is to be completed by 2009. Its reservoir will submerge part of a scenic Yangtze River canyon, as well as rich farmland and more than 1,000 factories.

The project has been condemned by environmentalists, who say the dam will further threaten endangered species downstream and various types of migratory fish. They also say water pollution from industrial Congquing will concentrate in the reservoir.

The United State withdrew its technical support in 1993 because of environmental concerns as well as doubts about the cost-effectiveness of the project, estimated by the Chinese government to carry a $27 billion price tag.

When completed, the factory will produce cement and chemicals, including sulfuric acid, and contribute $12 million annually in taxes, Xinhua said.

Sichuan eventually hopes to build some 20 chemical plants before 2000, if it can secure Beijing's approval and $960 million in investment.

Some 15,000 to 20,000 jobs created by those projects are specifically reserved for people displaced by the dam, Xinhua said.