HAIKOU - A legislative conference opened Monday morning in the newly established city of Sansha in the South China Sea.

Forty-five deputies to the municipal people's congress attended the first session of the first People's Congress held on Yongxing Island, the government seat of Sansha.

The deputies, divided into groups from the Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha islands, were elected Saturday by 1,100 residents from the islands.

The director of the congress's standing committee and the city's mayor will be elected during the conference.

The State Council, or China's cabinet, in June approved the establishment of Sansha, a prefectural-level city in south China's Hainan province to administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and the surrounding waters in the South China Sea.

China's central military authority has approved the formation and deployment of a military garrison in Sansha.

Sources with the People's Liberation Army Guangzhou Military Command said Friday that the Central Military Commission had authorized it to form a garrison command in the city.

Yongxing Island is part of the Xisha Islands.