Islamabad, Jan 5 (DPA) The traditional Basant kite festival will take place in Pakistan next month, authorities said Thursday, as they lifted a two-year ban imposed after a spate of fatal accidents.

The lavish event in Lahore will start on Feb 24 evening and continue through the next day, the Geo private television channel quoted Punjab province officials as saying.

Heralding the end of winter and the arrival of spring, the Basant festival is celebrated in the entire Indian subcontinent and particularly in Pakistan.

It was marred by tragedies in recent years as spectators fell off rooftops, were electrocuted by power lines or cut by kite strings coated with glass or shards of metal for "kite battles".

Kite flying was entirely banned in Pakistan in 2005 after at least nine people died and more than 200 injured in Lahore.

Amid protests by enthusiasts, Punjab's supreme court suspended the ban for 15 days in March last year. But provincial authorities quickly re-imposed the ban after a number of fresh deaths.

Coinciding with the government's "Destination Pakistan 2007" tourism drive, this year's festival will be more strictly regulated, including the closure of shops that produce deadly kite wires, Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar said.

But the ban on kite flying was expected to remain in force after the festival.