Arrival of Danube marathon swimmer

A Slovene man has become the first to swim the entire length of the River Danube.

Martin Strel, a forty-five-year-old amateur swimmer, started eight weeks ago in Germany's Black Forest and today reached the Romanian port of Sulina almost three thousand kilometres downstream.

Mr Strel's goal was to highlight the failure to clear the debris caused by NATO's war against Yugoslavia. The Romanian foreign minister, Petre Roman -- who swam alongside Mr Strel for several kilometres a week ago --, has challenged President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia to allow EU-funded clearing operations to proceed.

The poorer Danubian countries, Romania and Bulgaria, say the river's closure to navigation has seriously damaged trade. He now says he'll continue his swim along the Black Sea coast, in an attempt to beat the world record for marathon swimming.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service