Li Yanhong, chairman and founder of the search engine giant Baidu Inc, topped Forbes' latest list of the richest people on the Chinese mainland.

In the World's Billionaires list released by Forbes.com on Wednesday, Li, also known as Robin Li, ranked 86th globally with a personal fortune of $10.2 billion.

The Mexican telecoms czar Carlos Slim topped the list, sporting a fortune of $69 billion. Although the figure is lower than last year, Slim's wealth still outpaces that of his closest rival, Microsoft Corp's founder Bill Gates.

Forbes said 1,226 tycoons made it onto its global list of billionaires this year, but Slim held onto the top spot for the third straight year, with $8 billion more than Gates.

In third place is the US investment guru Warren Buffett, who is worth $44 billion. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman is followed by the French luxury king Bernard Arnault with $41 billion, and a newcomer to the top five, Spain's Amancio Ortega, the owner of the Zara fashion chain, whose net worth surged by $6.5 billion to $37.5 billion.

Despite the sluggish global economy, Forbes said the billionaires' list grew: there were 128 newcomers while 117 dropped off, with an average net worth of $3.7 billion, unchanged from last year.

Larry Ellison of the US software giant Oracle Corp, Brazilian mining tycoon Eike Batista, the owner of Hennes & Mauritz AB Stefan Persson of Sweden, Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing and Germany's Karl Albrecht, who owns the Aldi supermarket chain, make up the rest of the top 10.

The US was still the global center of wealth, with 425 billionaires on the list.

US billionaires dominated the top 20. But Russia and China outpaced the older industrial powers in terms of concentrated wealth.