'Doomsday' vault design unveiled

The final design for a "doomsday" vault that will
house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by
the Norwegian government.

The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole.

The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from
future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate
change.

Construction begins in March, and the seed bank is scheduled to open in 2008.

The
Norwegian government is paying the $5m (£2.5m) construction costs of
the vault, which will have enough space to house three million seed
samples.

See inside the Svalbard International Seed Vault

The collection and maintenance of the collection is
being organised by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which has
responsibility of ensuring the "conservation of crop diversity in
perpetuity".

"We want a safety net because we do not want to take too
many chances with crop biodiversity," said Cary Fowler, the Trust's
executive director.