A heat wave and a drought are gouging a multibillion-dollar hole into Europe's economy, crippling shipping, shriveling crops and driving up the cost of electricity.

A shell lies on the dried river bottom, due to low water levels, along the banks of the River Danube in central Belgrade, Monday July 28 2003. [AP]

In Romania, dredgers dug into the Danube on Monday to deepen the river bed for hundreds of stalled barges, while in Croatia, five tons of dead fish polluted a lake.

Levels on the Danube were under two yards near Bazias in southwestern Romania, more than a yard below the minimum needed for barge traffic. At the southern port of Zimnicea, dredgers scooped up sludge from the river bed Monday, attempting to deepen navigation channels for the 251 ships waiting to move upstream to key markets in central and northern Europe.

Weeks of heat and dryness also choked other parts of the Balkans and the rest of Europe.

Croatia's major rivers - the Sava, Drava, Kupa and Danube - were reported at their lowest levels ever, threatening water and electricity shortages, while Serbia's ecology minister, Adjelka Mihajlov said his republic's major rivers were at their lowest in 100 years.

Heralding potential ecological disaster, Grigore Baboianu, the director of the Danube Delta Reservation, said 10 percent of the delta's unique wetlands, home to rare waterfowl and other animals, had dried up, while about 40 percent of the delta's water had evaporated.

Upstream on the Danube, ships traveling from Austria to Germany were not carrying full loads because of low water levels. The drought also affected barge traffic on other rivers - the Elbe was impassable despite some weekend rain, and the Rhine was only deep enough to support lightly loaded boats. Many goods normally moving on the Elbe between Hamburg and the Czech Republic were offloaded and put on trucks.

Hartmut Rhein, of Germany's Deutsche Binneschifffahrt AG, said the increased costs of using trucks or canals instead of normal river traffic will mean higher prices for heavy equipment, scrap metal, building materials and grain.

Although there were no shortages yet, some shipments are "just taking longer and getting more expensive," Rhein said.

The worst drought in years, brought on by a prolonged heat wave that has kept temperatures well above 86 degrees for weeks, agriculture ministers from the European Union were demanding compensation from EU headquarters for affected farmers.

Farm lobby groups in the European Union say the drought has cost more than $5.7 billion in losses. Hardest hit within the EU have been Italy, France, Germany, Portugal and Austria, where farmers' representatives warn of harvests up to 60 percent below normal yields for some crops.

Lack of rain beyond occasional brief thunder storms have also slashed crops outside the EU - in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia and Romania. In Hungary alone, the government estimated drought-induced agricultural losses at about $434 million as corn stalks wither and fruit orchard leaves turn yellow.

After weeks of forest fires, dipping river levels and lack of rain, the drought made front-page news in parts of Europe.

"France is thirsty," read the lead story of Le Figaro newspaper Monday, as residents coped with limits on car washing, watering lawns and filling swimming pools.

Farmers in 55 of France's 96 departments were on alternate-day irrigation plans and were requested to regularly report the status of their water meters to local authorities, Le Figaro said. Violations carried fines of up to $1,720 for a first-time infraction.

Southern and eastern France have been hard hit by the drought, without significant rainfall in about two months. As river levels dip, several regions have banned fishing, including the central Loire and southern Hautes-Alpes departments until Sept. 21.

Forest fires fueled by the lack of rain and humidity have burned through 50,000 acres since the beginning of the month.

The Danube, which flows across 10 European countries, is also an essential source of electricity, supplying water to hydroelectric and nuclear power plants across the region. The volume of the Danube was at 3,066 cubic yards a second, the lowest in 160 years, according to Romanian shipping companies.

"A trip (to Western Europe) that normally took six days now takes three weeks, and we're loading only at half capacity," said Victor Crihana, director of Trans-Europa, an Austrian-Romanian shipping company.

Workers at Romania's only nuclear power plant at the southern port of Cernavoda were ready to shut down its reactor if water levels fell another 3.3 feet.

In Italy, where a heat wave and accompanying drought have lasted weeks, the national grid was overloaded by the use of air conditioners, causing summer blackouts for the first time in over 20 years. The Po River, which feeds many lesser rivers in northern Italy, was at near record low levels.

Rivers in the forest areas in northwestern Croatia were so low that some systems were pumping only mud instead of water and residents had to have bottled water delivered to their doorsteps.

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