Panama City.– The planned expansion of the Panama Canal will be self-financed via higher tolls, and the construction project is expected to create some 240,000 jobs, a canal official said.

The waterway's No. 2 administrator, Manuel Benitez, told reporters that if the project was approved, users would pay for the expansion.

The Treasury will not have to pay for the project, Benitez said, adding that the proposal set forth by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) "does not call for the central government to take on any type of debt to cover the financing" of the construction.

Regarding employment, "we are talking about possibly more than 240,000 additional jobs," including direct and indirect positions, the ACP official said.

Some 150,000 Panamanians are currently unemployed.

The official spoke about the expansion project after reviewing a report on the ACP's finances for 2005, when revenues totaled $1.2 billion and $489 million was paid into the Treasury.

Benitez said construction of the third set of locks foreseen in the project would begin within 18-24 months after approval of the expansion in the referendum.

Panama plans to hold a referendum later this year on expansion of the canal. Under the Panamanian Constitution, the decision to expand the interoceanic waterway can only be made by the people in a referendum.

Construction of the new locks is expected to take about five years, and "we will have to raise tolls immediately" to provide the initial project financing, Benitez said.

The new locks are needed to accommodate the larger ships now in operation around the world.

Panamax ships, which are 230 meters (almost 800 feet) long, 32.2 meters (almost 105 feet) wide and have a 70,000-ton capacity, are the largest vessels that can pass through the flood gates of Gatun, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores, which have remained unchanged since the canal was built.

Last week, President Martin Torrijos said a report would be released to the public April 24 on the expansion studies.

The Panama Canal, which the United States began building in 1904, opened on Aug. 15, 1914, with the passage of the U.S. steamship Ancon.

The 80-kilometer (49-mile) waterway links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and has been under Panamanian management since Dec.

31, 1999, when the United States surrendered it under the terms of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter accords.