The construction work on the 45-km Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Causeway will start in May 2008, a report said.

The Qatar and Bahrain Causeway Foundation (QBCF) has signed a memorandum of understanding with a joint venture formed by Qatari company Al Diyar and French construction group Vinci in this respect, said the Gulfr News report.

The construction work will last four years, the report said.

The $2 billion causeway will link the Qatari coast of Ras Ashiraj to the village of Askar on the eastern coastline of Bahrain, said QBCF's chairman Ahmad Hassan Al Hammadi.

He said the final contract for the execution of the work with the joint venture would be signed in the next four months.

The Friendship Causeway will become the world's longest fixed link and will be an extension of the King Fahd Causeway between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, thus linking the entire region, he said.

The project is expected to consist of a number of bridges combined with roads constructed on dams.