NEW DELHI: As the world votes for the new seven wonders, our own Taj Mahal finds itself among the top ten contenders for the honor, but Indians will really have to pull up their socks to see the 17th century marble monument make it to the elite list.

With little less than a month left for the names of the top seven marvels to be announced in Lisbon, Portugal, the New 7 Wonders Society, a Swiss non-profit group that launched the global online, phone and SMS poll, has released a top ten list in alphabetical order.

However, reaching the final seven would not be easy for the Taj without vigorous voting by Indians, who have so far lagged behind in a campaign in which our high population could actually be a boon, for a change. "Before May 23, the voting percentage of Indians was only 0.7, but after publicity drives have been launched, it has rapidly increased, standing at 4.5 per cent yesterday," said Bharat Kapadia, the Chairman of "Indian Unites for the Taj" campaign, which is mobilizing people to vote for the monument of love.

"The campaign is gradually gaining momentum. But we will have to really keep it up, especially in view of the fact that other countries are also voting spiritedly for their monuments," Kapadia, whose I Media Corp is the official partner of N7W Foundation in India, said. Vying with Taj to make the final cut on July 7, 2007 (07.07.07) are the Great Wall of China, Eiffel Tower of Paris, the Colosseum of Rome, Statues of Easter Island, the Mayan temple city of Chichen Itza in Mexico and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil.

The Acropolis in Athens, Jordan's Petra, the capital of the Nabataean empire of King Aretas IV and the Inca city of Machu Picchu are also among the top ten, according to votes garnered.

The global hunt for the new seven wonders, a brainchild of Swiss author-filmmaker Bernerd Weber, stipulated that all sites have to be man-made, be in an acceptable state of preservation and to have been completed by 2000.

After the launch of the voting campaign in 2000, the nominations were whittled down by public votes to 77 last year, which was shortened to 21 by a panel of architectural experts chaired by former UNESCO chief F M Zaragoza.