Blackout across Europe

A massive power outage temporarily plunged millions of homes across western Europe into darkness and initial findings suggested a routine safety operation in Germany may have been to blame, authorities said yesterday.

The impact of the power cuts at around 2130 GMT on Saturday night was felt in heavily populated areas of Germany, France and Italy, as well as parts of Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, and even extended as far as Morocco.

The cuts prompted German government calls for an immediate explanation into the causes and renewed demands from top politicians for a shake-up of Europe's troubled energy policy.

A spokesman for a French union said the outage was the worst in France in 30 years. Some European train services were disrupted.

French media estimated some five million people were affected, while authorities in Germany said at least one million there were left without power. The outages, most of which lasted for less than an hour, were also widespread in northern Italy.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the blackout showed the need for a common European energy authority and policy.

"It's a rich contradiction that we depend on each other but we can't help each other without a common authority... we still don't have a European energy policy," he told reporters.

German utility E.ON said reports of the cuts began to emerge not long after it shut down a high voltage line over a river in northwestern Germany to let a ship pass through in safety, and that this may have been linked to the power loss.

"In the past, these operations were often performed without any problems arising," the firm said, adding that the precise cause behind the loss in supply was still being investigated.

Bitter disputes surrounding mergers - including E.ON's efforts to buy its Spanish rival Endesa - have hampered efforts by the European Union to formulate a collective energy policy.