The Shanghai Expo "Better City, Better Life," will send 60 volunteers to learn from the World Expo on world water that opened Friday in Zaragoza, Spain.

The three-month Spanish Expo is themed "Water and Sustainable Development."

Shanghai organizers said today that six teams of volunteers are all experienced in volunteering large events and fluent in either English or Spanish. They include 22 students from 15 colleges in Shanghai.

The first batch of 10 volunteers will leave in late June; the teams will work in Zaragoza for about two weeks.

"This is the first time that Shanghai has sent volunteers to a World Expo, which shows the cooperation between the two World Expos," said Xu Weiguo, vice secretary of the Communist Party of China Commission of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

"This is a chance to train our volunteers. We hope they will be the backbone of the future volunteer team for the Shanghai Expo," Xu said.

The Zaragoza Expo is a recognized world exposition that will run through mid-September. Six million visitors are expected at the event involving 105 countries and international organizations.

The Shanghai Expo will need at least 20,000 volunteers. Recruitment will begin in October.

Volunteers will perform 38 kinds of positions, including interpreters, media assistants, traffic guides and grounds workers.