The 25-year project would address the region's acute water shortage by eventually providing up to 850 million cubic metres (about 30 billion cubic feet) of fresh water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Jordanian officials said.

Water Minister Zafer al-Aalem was quoted by Al-Ghad newspaper as saying that given the scale of the project the government will take its time in evaluating the offers, warning that "even a small error could cause the kingdom to suffer for 25 years."

As one of the 10 most water impoverished countries in the world, Jordan's water deficit exceeds 500 million cubic metres a year, according to the water ministry.

Officials from Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority launched a feasibility study for the project in December 2006 in a bid to save the Dead Sea and improve regional ties.

France, the Netherlands, Japan and the United States committed nine million dollars to finance the two-year study estimated to cost around 15.5 million dollars, and a total of 16 countries have expressed interest in the project, which will be managed by the World Bank.

A seven-member committee of senior water ministry officials is examining the three offers and will submit its recommendations to the ministry which will in turn send it to the cabinet for endorsement.

However, there were no details given about the offers.

Environmental experts have repeatedly warned that the Dead Sea is in danger of drying up as Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians divert the waters of the Jordan River, which feeds it, for agriculture.

The Dead Sea is the world's lowest and most saline body of water. Its level has dropped by a third since the 1960s and restoring it to its natural water level would take 25-30 years, Aalem said in December.

The first phase of the proposed project consists in building a 180-kilometre (110-mile) pipeline to pump 1.9 billion cubic metres of water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea at a cost of one billion dollars.

The second phase estimated to cost 2.5 billion dollars will involve the construction of a desalination plant in Jordan and a power plant to generate electricity.

No estimate has yet been made available for the third and last phase of the project to transfer 850 million cubic metres of desalinated water to be shared by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians.

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