In The Netherlands, two people succumbed to the heat during the opening day Tuesday of an annual four-day walk in the eastern Nijmegen region, the Dutch news agency ANP reported.

The heatwave forced the cancellation of the event, ANP reported.

In France's southwest Bordeaux region, sweltering at 38 degrees C, local authorities said two octogenarians fell victim to hyperthermia. An 85-year-old man died in hospital and a woman, 81, at her home.

In Spain, a 44-year-old man died of heat exhaustion at Orense, in the northwestern region of Galicia, regional officials said, after he had reportedly been working outside as temperatures hit 41.5 C.

Britain, already suffering the hottest day of the year on Tuesday, was braced for its hottest day on record as forecasters predicted temperatures could reach 39 C in parts of England on Wednesday.

The high temperatures revived the spectre of the 2003 heatwave, which killed 30,000 people in Europe, half of them in France.

Meteorologists in Germany are warning their countrymen that Thursday could be the hottest day in the year at 38 C, and July as a whole could be the hottest month in a century.

A spokeswoman for Britain's Met office said about Wednesday: "We think there's a possiblity of the record being broken in the area to the west of London, where there is a concentration of hot air."

The highest temperature ever recorded in Britain was 38.5 C in Kent on August 10, 2003.

The London underground system, the oldest in the world, was a furnace on Tuesday with a record temperature of 47 C.

Bus passengers fared even worse, with temperatures on buses in the City of London, the main financial district, reaching 52 C.

Britain's trade union body the TUC has called for workers to be allowed to cast off their jackets and ties and dress casually to help beat the heat and lessen the reliance on air conditioning.

But the sunny weather proved an ideal day to launch the Solarshuttle, Britain's largest solar-powered boat.

The 14.5-metre (27-foot) craft was due to ply the waters of the Serpentine lake in London's Hyde Park.

Scientists have warned pasty Britons who are cooling down in parks and on beaches to use sun block.

Across the Channel, around a quarter of France was affected by the heatwave on Tuesday, predominately in the southwest.

Cyclists competing in the Tour de France sweated through the 187-kilometre (116-mile) stage in the Alps, which includes four notorious climbs.

French authorities, who were accused of reacting too slowly to the tragic 2003 heatwave, were leaving little to chance this year, and hospitals and retirement homes were on high alert.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin planned to visit a Parisian retirement home on Wednesday to demonstrate the measures the goverment was taking to care for the population vulnerable to the sweltering temperatures.

Italy's main farmers' union said the country was suffering one of the worst droughts in 30 years with the situation in the north and the centre particularly bad.

Water levels in the lakes of northern Italy have fallen to historic low levels, making the irrigation of crops difficult, the Coldiretti union said in a statement.

Belgium's royal meteorological institute announced "tropical temperatures" of between 29 C and 33 C, with highs of 35 C in the north.

The Netherlands, Finland and Sweden all reported unusually hot weather.

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