The firm which runs the Channel Tunnel has said it is poised to reach breakeven, eight years after the project was finished.

Eurotunnel, which lost �132m last year, credited the improvement in its performance largely to a debt restructuring which had cut interest payments.

The firm said services were no longer suffering disruption the asylum seekers who have used the tunnel as a route to reach Britain.

"Our improved cash flow... [means] that there is now a real chance that we shall achieve our target of cash breakeven in 2002, or certainly come very close to it," chairman Charles Mackay said.

Asylum seekers

The announcement comes five months after Eurotunnel condemned government "inactivity" over the asylum seekers who were breaking into Eurotunnel yards in a bid to stowaway on Britain-bound trains.

The firm spent �2m in the first half of this year alone seeing off the threat, Monday's statement said.

But while immigrants were "no longer disrupting" services from Eurotunnel's French terminal, they were continuing to attempt break-ins at a nearby Frethun freight terminal run by France's national rail firm, SNCF.

The level of freight running from Frethun through the tunnel almost halved over the first six months of the year, compared with the same period in 2001.

Debt deal

The Le Shuttle services run by Eurotunnel itself saw takings rise 7% to �159m, largely thanks to a rise in the number of lorries transported.

While the number of cars carried was, at 1.06 million, 9% lower than a year before, prices rises introduced in a strategy to attract holidaymakers, rather than day trippers, supported a revenue rise.

The firm made an underlying loss of �76m over the January to June period, Monday's statement showed.

But backed by increasing revenues and a debt restructuring, which will cut interest payments by �35m this year and �30m annually from 2006, Eurotunnel trumpeted "good progress" towards breakeven.

'Our strategy is clearly working," chief executive Richard Shirrefs said.

"We have achieved solid revenue growth from our shuttle services, controlled our spending, and pulled off an ambitious financial deal despite difficult financial markets."

Eurotunnel shares stood 0.5p higher at 56.25p in morning trade in London.