Cunard's next generation of cruise ship, Queen Victoria, which will enter service in Southampton in 2005, has taken another important step forward to becoming a reality.

At a special ceremony in Italy the keel of the new ship has been officially laid, marking a highly significant point in the construction of the £250million vessel.

The keel-laying involved the placement in the dry dock of a major central section of the ship made up of six construction blocks, each weighing 480 tons and fitted with 80 tons of pipes, cables, insulation and other equipment.

The keel-laying, at the Marghera shipyard of Fincantieri near Venice, followed an intensive period of design and development together with the cutting of the first steel in February this year.

Around 5,000 tons of steel has already been cut and assembled in specialised workshops while around 68 sections will be used in building the ship, already dubbed 'Queen Vic' in the port of Southampton.

Her float out is scheduled for May 2004 prior to her delivery to Cunard in March 2005, a little more than a year after the massive 150,000-ton megaliner, Queen Mary 2 is due to enter service in Southampton.

Queen Victoria is a highly significant project for Cunard as the shipping line continues its strategy of claiming a bigger stake in today's British cruising industry.

Pam Conover, Cunard's president and chief operating officer, said: "Let me give you a rather startling fact.

"Other than Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria is the biggest ship Cunard has ever built. Bigger than Queen Elizabeth 2, bigger than Queen Elizabeth, bigger than Queen Mary, bigger in fact than all the famous

Cunard names you can think of.

"She will increase Cunard's capacity by more than 40 per cent and she is also significant because when she comes into service she will become the third in a trio of Queens - QE2, QM2 and Queen Victoria. This will be the first time that the Cunard fleet has had three Queen vessels.

"Like QE2 and QM2 she will fly the Red Ensign, she will have her home port as Southampton, she will have a British captain and officers, and on board she will have an undoubted British ambience, British cuisine and sterling.''

Queen Victoria will be able to accommodate up to 1,968 passengers and operate in and out of Southampton to the Mediterranean, Canaries and Northern Europe as well as voyages to the Caribbean.