A feasibility study by Swiss engineers for an undersea tunnel to connect Spain and Morocco is said to be approaching completion.
Construction would start in 2009 and take 15 years to complete.
At the cost of at least £4billion.
Trains carrying both passengers and goods are expected to start using the tunnel in 2025.
The tunnel would be 40km long and pass 300m under the Mediterranean Sea.
The Africa and Europe continents split and drifted apart over 200 million years ago.
Angel Aparicio, president of the Spanish government agency co-ordinating the project wasn't very positive about the studies outcome: "Building the tunnel presents difficulties that may not be possible to overcome. The material here is not compact enough to allow an initial excavation"
"It is clay with rock and so it is not as compact as it is in the rest. As we have a lot of water we have a very high pressure and we are not sure whether we could go through with the tunnelling," he said.
"Those are the difficult questions."
There are lots of objections within Spain to the tunnel. Connecting Spain to impoverished Africa is seen to be fraught with problems. Not least immigration, which is already a problem..
Others are sceptical about this ambitious scheme ever being completed. Plans for a bridge and tunnel between Spain and Morocco have been mooted for more than 20 years. However, this time the project has support from the European Union and also there is the possibility of funding from the World Bank.
Photograph top Tangiers taken by Elyob
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