"We will be having a Mardi Gras. It's going to be an eight-day event. Most of the hotels will be back up and operational," mayor Nagin said in an interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation" program.

"I think it's going to send a wonderful message to the world that New Orleans is on the road to recovery," Nagin said, adding that there had been a debate about whether to push ahead with the festival, which falls this year in late February.

Critics have said it will be too costly for the cash-starved city to mount Mardi Gras this year.

However, Nagin argued that the event, a popular tourist draw in recent years, will actually help the wounded city get back on its feet.

"The tourist industry is already stood up. And we are in a position now to accommodate tourists coming to our city," he said.

"I want to see corporations signing up for conventions, I want to see people coming to visit New Orleans to help us rebound our economy," Nagin said.

Hurricane Katrina struck the coastal Louisiana city, which lies below sea level, and the US Gulf Coast on August 29, destroying and flooding large parts of New Orleans and sparking a mass exodus of its population.

Asked what New Orleans' population was, Nagin replied: "Right now it's probably at about 100,000. We're expecting the population to double to somewhere around 190,000 to 200,000 people as (of) January," he said, saying the re-opening of city schools will encourage more citizens to return.

However, that would still leave New Orleans at under half its pre-Katrina population and the mayor said he believes it will be three to five years before the city is fully populated.

Nagin added that the rebuilding effort, overseen by local, state and federal officials, should be moving more quickly than it is, and called for more inhabitants who fled the city in Katrina's wake to return.

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