Forbes Magazine released its 19th annual list of world's billionaires Thursday, saying that thesuper rich in the world had grown richer.

Forbes Magazine, a New York-based business media, reported 131 people had joined the billionaires' list and the total net worth of the 691 billionaires had climbed by 300 billion to 2.2 trilliondollars this year.

The United States, with 341 billionaires, still ranked the first in the world's super rich's club. But many new faces came from the emerging economies, with India claiming 12 and Mexico claiming 10. Several new countries, such as Poland, Kazakhstan andUkraine, were also joining the list.

Microsoft's founder Bill Gates, with 46.5 billion US dollars, maintained his reign as world's richest billionaire, following by capital strategist Warren Buffett with 44 billion dollars and India's steel giant Lakshmi Mittal with 25 billion dollars.

Li Ka-shing, a billionaire from Hong Kong, became the richest Chinese with 13 billion dollars. Martha Stewart was listed by Forbes as a new billionaire for the first time. During her 5-monthprison period, her net worth increased to 1 billion dollars, up byabout 600 million dollars.

Steve Forbes, Forbes Magazine's chief executive and editor-in-chief, said a key factor that contributed to the increasing numberof billionaires had been the economic recovery and growth. He expected the number of billionaires for 2006 to beat this year.

Source: Xinhua