"Our battle against poverty starts from here," Beshir said in a televised speech during a visit to Merowe, some 350 kilometres (215 miles) north of Khartoum, where the 1.8 billion-dollar dam is being built.

Beshir predicted that the dam, expected to be completed by 2008, will contribute to development efforts in the country by generating much-needed electricity for domestic use as well as for industrial and agricultural projects.

The dam will produce some 1250 megawatts of electricity and eight transmission lines with a combined length of 1760 kilometers (1100 miles) will connect it to the national grid via a station in Merowe.

Much of the country's supply of electricity currently comes from the Roseiries Dam on the Blue Nile in eastern Sudan, but its capacity and age has meant that power supply is intermittent in many areas.

"It is a dream to be able to construct such an edifice, which will yield twice the current generation of electricity in Sudan," said Beshir.

The scarcity of power in many parts of the country, including in key industrial and agricultural zones which are the pillar of the economy, coupled with more than two decades of civil war have been blamed for holding up development in Sudan.

The Khartoum government and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement signed a peace agreement in Nairobi in January which ended the war and set the stage for massive reconstruction and development in one of the world's poorest countries.

"Merowe Dam represents the end of poverty because it constitutes the real start of development in the country," said Beshir.

AFP