A Spanish-led consortium has resumed work to expand the Panama Canal, which handles five per cent of global seaborne trade, after an acrimonious two-week stalemate over $US1.6 billion ($A1.78 billion) in cost overruns.
Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), which sent its workers back to the construction site in the afternoon, said it hoped the multi-billion-dollar upgrade would be back "in full swing in the shortest possible time".
Canal administrator Jorge Quijano confirmed that work had resumed, but stressed that "there are still many areas where we disagree", in what is one of the world's most ambitious civil engineering projects.
The plan to build larger locks on the 80km waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was stopped earlier this month by the GUPC consortium led by Sacyr of Spain, along with construction companies Italy's Salini Impregilo, Belgium's Jan De Nul and Constructora Urbana of Panama.
But all the workers should be back at the site by Friday, union representative Hector Hurtado told AFP. Much of the heavy machinery was still standing at the work site.
GUPC wants Panama to add the sum of the overruns to the initial contract fee of $US3.2 billion ($A3.56 billion).
Another concern is whether insurer Zurich, the project's guarantor, will convert a $US400 million ($A444.77 million) surety bond into a loan to help raise a total of $US1.5 billion ($A1.67 billion) needed to complete the project.
The consortium said that talks were ongoing with the canal authority to sign a memorandum "in the coming days".
The canal expansion had been due to be completed this year in time for the 100th anniversary of the fabled canal, but has been put back a year.
The original canal, built by the United States, mostly with workers brought in from the Caribbean, was opened in 1914.
