Dark Continent sees light

Plans to link Europe to Africa via a tunnel are gathering pace.

The Moroccan government has been holding talks with its Spanish counterparts to start the project, which would consist of a railway beneath the Strait of Gibraltar carrying freight, passengers and cars.

Work is expected to start in 2008.

Giovanni Lombardi, the veteran Swiss engineer who's been involved with the Gotthard pass in Switzerland and the Mont Blanc tunnel linking Italy and France, sees this as his toughest assignment yet.