A major development project in Southampton Docks is to boost the city as one of Europe's leading centres for the shipping industry.

In the latest port scheme, the present Mayflower Cruise Terminal, home berth for P&O Cruises' Southampton-based fleet of vessels, will be transformed into a passenger facility that will be capable of handling hundreds of thousands of people and huge amounts of luggage every year.

This comes on top of work already under way to build the UK's first quayside-based multi-stack vehicle terminal in the Eastern Docks, the inauguration of a ship-to-shore linkspan at 203 Berth for the car import and export trade and the re-alignment of roads around Southampton Container Terminals to create more storage space.

Associated British Ports - owner and operator of the docks - and P&O Cruises are now putting the finishing touches to the plans for the new cruise terminal at 106 Berth.

The terminal, which will offer first-class facilities as passengers embark and disembark, underlines P&O Cruises' long-term commitment to Southampton Docks as its principal centre of operations.

Reconstruction of the Mayflower Terminal is expected to begin early next year, with work expected to take around one year.

Andrew Kent, ABP director, port of Southampton, said: "As northern Europe's main cruise port it is important that in Southampton we constantly improve the quality of our facilities.

"This is an important step in that process, building on the strong relationship with P&O Cruises to secure the long-term future and the many local jobs that go with it.''

Among the ships that will operate in and out of the terminal will be Aurora, Oriana and Arcadia as well as the superliner Oceana, which is due to replace classic cruise ship Victoria next year.