Panama Canal favourite revealed

The expansion project got under way in September 2007

A consortium led by Spain's Sacyr and Italy's Impregilo submitted the lowest bid for the biggest contract in the Panama Canal expansion project.

The consortium offered to build new locks for the canal for $3.1bn (£1.9bn) and the Canal Authority said it had also submitted the best technical plan.

The official winner of the tender may not be announced for several weeks.

Building the locks is the biggest part of the $5.25bn project to allow the canal to take bigger cargo ships.

At the moment, the biggest ships that can use the canal carry up to 5,000 containers.

But after the expansion the canal should be able to take ships carrying 12,000 containers.

It was originally built by the US, which handed over control to Panama in 1999.

The consortium, called United for the Canal, also includes Jan de Nul of Belgium and Panama's Constructora Urbana.

The canal expansion project began in September 2007 and is due to be completed by August 2014, 100 years after the initial construction of the canal was completed.