UKRAINE: The Ukrainian president, Mr Leonid Kuchma, has hailed the opening of a canal in the ecologically sensitive Danube delta, defying opponents who say the waterway will harm the environment.
The EU, Germany and Romania have repeatedly called on Ukraine to stop work on the canal, which will link the Black Sea to Ukraine's section of the Danube river delta. Romania said yesterday it planned to take Ukraine to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, complaining that the canal would cause water levels to change and harm the delta.
Mr Kuchma however said his critics were merely protecting their own economic interests. He had previously said he believed Romania wanted a monopoly on transit in the region.
"We know very well that some interested parties are trying to stir the waters around the canal," he said in a speech aboard a ship at the start of the canal in Ukraine's southern Odessa region, "but in actual fact its construction has been carried out in line with all international ecological demands. The channel was completed without any damage to the environment."
The office of the Romanian president, Mr Ion Iliescu, condemned the opening. "Ukraine's policy of the done deed does not belong to the spirit of good neighbourhood between our two countries and is against the unanimously accepted international principles regarding border waters," it said in a statement.
The delta is home to more than 280 species of birds as well as 45 freshwater fish species in its numerous lakes and marshes.
The EU has also condemned the opening of the canal, fearing it could harm the unique ecosystem, a UNESCO world heritage site since 1991. It said the launch could harm relations with Kiev.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature has said the canal threatens the delta's most important wetland, where 70 per cent of the world's white pelicans and 50 per cent of pygmy cormorants live.