Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. won a rare victory after Mexican officials and an international preservation group said no damage would be caused by building a discount store less than a mile from the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan.

The announcement Wednesday by the State of Mexico and the Paris-based International Council On Monuments and Sites, Icomos, struck a blow to opponents who had vowed to block the store, claiming it would intrude upon and damage the archaeological site.

"The project in question does not damage the conservation of archaeological remains, nor the integrity, environmental or cultural values of the archaeological zone," according to the report by the Mexico chapter of Icomos.

The report did recommend several measures - including the use of non-reflective roofing materials, perimeter walls and trees to further hide Wal-Mart's massive "Bodega Aurrera" store, which would operate under the name of a Mexican chain owned by Wal-Mart.

But the council - an oversight body which helps monitor U.N. World Heritage Sites like Teotihuacan - denied claims that the store would ruin the view from the top of the pyramids, which are nearly a mile away.

Mexican authorities "have set a series of conditions so that the store will not affect the view from the archaeological site," the report said.

But Icomos also criticized local officials in San Juan Teotihuacan, the town built starting in the 17th century next to the ruins, for rushing to grant initial building permits without first consulting archeologists. But it described the scant remains found on site - a small stone platform - as relatively unimportant, "modest ... and extremely decayed," and recommended they be reburied to prevent further deterioration.

Wal-Mart, Mexico's largest retailer, was pleased at the news, which came after weeks of sometimes threatening protests at the site.

Opponents were livid.

"What might this mean? Perhaps they can build a strip club at the Holy Sepulcher, a McDonald's at the ruins of Montealban, or a Hard Rock Cafe next to Pyramids of Egypt," wrote columnist Javier Aranda, referring, respectively, to the site where Jesus was buried and to another famous Mexican ruin.

Officials of the State of Mexico, where the ruins are located, had initially hinted they might seek an alternate site for the store.

But on Monday they said there was no way to stop it, because the company had all necessary permits - even though the firm initially started construction without a government-mandated archaeologist.

The 2,000-year-old ruins in a valley just north of Mexico City were built by a little-known culture whose very name has been lost, and were abandoned hundreds of years before the Spaniards arrived.