"Forecasts are not optimistic" that 2006 will bring more rain to a country of which vast swathes have been parched for months, according to Palop, who said this year had been "the driest in 120 years."

Spain's hydraulic year ends Friday and Palop revealed that rain over the past 12 months totaled 40 percent less than the annual average.

"Normal precipitation should meet the necessities of the general public but not those of agriculture through irrigation," Palop told a news conference in Madrid.

Worst affected are "agriculture on dry ground, for which (2005) has been a true catastrophe, extensive stock farming, then society and the environment, also given the fires we had," said Palop.

Seventeen people have died over the summer in forest fires, including 11 firefighters in a single incident on July 27 in Guadalajara, east of Madrid, while the ministry calculates 153,000 hectares (378,000 acres) of forestry and shrubland have been destroyed, a 10-year record.

Palop said things could get worse, particularly along the Mediterranean coast.

"There are water problems along the Mediterranean seaboard," he noted.

Along the Costa del Sol the regional government of the southern region of Andalusia was later set to announce restrictions up as far as Murcia on the southeast coast with reserves standing at a mere 37 percent of capacity compared with 57 percent 12 months ago.

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