Reuters, Paris

EXPLORERS have discovered the source of the Mekong

River, one of the world's last geological mysteries, it was announced April

11.

A Franco-British expedition penetrated remote mountains in northwest

China to find the starting point of the 4,425-kilometer river which ranks 10th

longest in the world.

It pinpointed the source at the head of the Rup-sa

pass, the watershed between the Yangtse and Mekong river systems, almost 5,000

meters up and hundreds of kilometers from the nearest village.

Expedition

leader Michel Peissel said in a statement that dozens of previous expeditions

had failed to locate the spot.

"There is no other record or claim of the

source having been reached by other foreigners," he said. A report on the

discovery will be published in April's edition of Geographic Magazine, linked to

Britain's Royal Geographic Society.