NEW YORK, March 9 - Bill Gates remained the world's wealthiest person for the 13th straight year, followed by friend and fellow philanthropist Warren Buffett, according to the 2007 Forbes billionaires List released on Thursday.

 

With the biggest one-year gain over the past decade, Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim Helu increased his wealth by 19 billion dollars, now just 3 billion dollars shy of Buffett.

 

The members of the 2007 Forbes billionaires List are worth a total of 3.5 trillion dollars, climbing 900 billion dollars from 2006. The number of billionaires increased to a record 946, up 153from last year, and includes 178 new billionaires.

 

"This growth in the billionaires list is a mere reflection of a dynamic global economy," said Steve Forbes, the magazine's CEO and chief editor. "More people are better off on this Earth than ever before."

 

There are two newcomers to the Top 10: Spaniard Amancio Ortega, No. 23 last year, whose fashion franchise Zara and his 24 billion dollars net worth put him at No. 8; and Canadian David Thomson and family, who replace the late Kenneth Thomson and family (No.9 in 2006), at No.10.

 

Two-thirds of last year's billionaires are richer this year, with net worth up for every member of the top 50 with a few exceptions: Paul Allen (No. 19) dropped 4 billion dollars to fall out of the top ten, and fellow tech mogul Michael Dell fell from No. 12 to No. 30 with a loss of 1.3 billion dollars over the past year. The Koch brothers remained the same as last year at 12 billion dollars each.

 

There are 53 nations and regions represented on this year's list, along with additional entries from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Monaco. There are 415 billionaires from the United States, representing 44 percent of the entire list. New faces include Starbucks chief Howard Schultz (No. 840), Michael Eisner (No. 891),and Canadians Mike Lazaridis (No. 583) and Jim Balsillie (No. 618),co-chief executives from Research In Motion (the makers of BlackBerry).

 

Russia has seen a surge in wealth, adding 19 new billionaires. After two decades, Japan is no longer Asia's top spot for billionaires: India has 36, worth a total of 191 billion dollars, followed by Japan with 24, with a total net worth of 64 billion dollars. Sixty percent of this year's billionaires are self-made, and of those, 10 are women.