Over 400 projects worth more than $300 billion have been placed on hold or cancelled in the United Arab Emirates due to the global financial crisis, Dubai-based research firm Proleads Global said on Tuesday.

The construction sector in the UAE will stabilise this year and is expected to show signs of recovery in 2010, the firm said, adding multiple projects in several sectors are scheduled for completion up to 2011, with most in 2010, it said.

'The study identifies a slowdown in new projects in the commercial and retail; education and healthcare projects being placed on hold more often than in the past; a slowdown in leisure and entertainment and an increasing rate of cancellations in the residential sector,' the report added.

Dubai's once-booming property sector has been hit particularly hard by the downturn, while the country's capital, Abu Dhabi, home to most of the UAE's oil, has been more resilient.

More than 750 active projects in the UAE are under construction and 450 have been recently completed it said.

In February, Proleads said 52.8 percent of projects were on hold while a further $698 billion-worth remained in progress.-Reuters