MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lobbying for Panama Canal expansion

Panama will be selling this week the ambitious plan to expand the 92 year old Panama waterway linking the Caribbean with the Pacific, in Britain and France.

Panama's Foreign Affairs minister Samuel Lewis Navarro is scheduled to visit London, where he will meet with UK's Transport Minister, the city's Mayor and the Secretary General of the World Maritime Organization, and Paris to give a conference to the French Geographic Society.

"For countries that use the canal it's most important they are aware of the proposal and how Panama will face the challenge of the Canal's capacity bottleneck, as world trade continues to expand", said Minister Lewis.

Panamanian president Martin Torrijos launched the project last April and is currently involved in a national information campaign over the proposed expansion.

Following the information process, the project must be considered by the country's National Assembly and then a referendum, probably at the end of 2007.

Public opinion polls showed support for the expansion of the Canal even before details were unveiled.

The project basically proposes constructing new, wider and longer locks so as to allow vessels of larger tonnage with more cargo capacity by.

The Panama Canal Authority has estimated the cost of the project in the range of 5.2 billion US dollars. However opposition leaders are protesting the bill is much higher and environmentalists fear damages to the ecosystem.

Over 4% of world maritime trade crosses annually the Panama Canal with its main users, United States, China and Japan. Chile is Latinamerica's main client.