December 9, 2003	Tuesday	Shawwal 14, 1424

AL QUDS, Dec 8: Israel is constructing an underground government complex in the mountains near occupied Al Quds, designed to house the Israeli government during times of war, a news report said Sunday.

The extensive project has been secretly underway since the end of 2002, according to a report by TV channel 10.

Details of the dimensions of the project have not been released, but Israeli experts estimated that the excavation process alone may cost at least 500 million Shekel (about 112 million dollars).

Government officials have made use of the central bunker of the Israeli general military command in Tel Aviv in recent occasions of war in the Middle East. Supporters of the ambitious and expensive project said that strategic changes have made the construction of a government bunker necessary.

—dpa