A heat wave has spread across Europe with near-tropical temperatures so far claiming seven lives as people struggle through their daily lives in temperatures reaching 40 degrees.

The United States is also recording extremely high temperatures, which has led to the death of six people and a call for residents of New York city to turn off the lights to conserve energy.

In France, it is those in the southeast who are suffering the most, but even temperatures in Paris will soar to 36 degrees by midweek as the heat wave spreads to the north, forecasters said

Around a quarter of the France is being affected by the heat and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin today planned a visit to a Paris retirement home to show the measures the government is taking to care for the elderly population, vulnerable in the heat.

An elderly man and woman have already died in the Bordeaux region in the when the heat exacerbated their medical conditions. Temperatures had reached 38 degrees when the 85-year-old man died in hospital, and the woman, 81 at her home.

A 53-year-old labourer in the eastern French town of Macon died overnight of "malign hyperthermia" after working outside in temperatures of 33 degrees, authorities said.

French authorities are on high alert, all too aware of the criticism they faced after the 2003 European heat wave in which 30,000 people died - half of them in France.

"There is no reason for disquiet, but we have to be vigilant and the health protection messages have to be constantly repeated," said Health Minister Xavier Bertrand.

France’s main electricity provider, EDF asked customers to cut back on electricity consumption and said it had been forced to buy power abroad.

"These exceptional weather conditions, coupled with a rise in consumption, have led to a deficit in production," EDF said in a statement.

Two people died yesterday at Nijmegen in the Netherlands, during the first day of a four-day walk after temperatures rose to more than 30 degrees. According to reports on Dutch television around 300 people fainted and 30 walkers had to be hospitalised. Temperatures in the Netherlands today are expected to rise to 36 degrees.

Meteorologists in Germany have warned that tomorrow could be the hottest day of the year, when the mercury could reach 38 degrees and July could possibly be their hottest month in a century.

Berlin is expected to reach a maximum of 30 degrees today.

In Spain, a 44-year-old man died of heat exhaustion at Orense, in the north-western region of Galicia, regional officials said, when he was working outside as temperatures hit 41.5 C. Another man died on Sunday in Murcia, southern Spain. In Spanish cities temperatures were slightly lower than that today, with Madrid expected to reach a maximum of 34 degrees.

Water levels in the lakes of northern Italy have fallen to historically low levels, and regions in the north are suffering one of the worst droughts in 30 years, according to the Farmers Union.

Finland and Sweden have all reported unusually hot weather and Belgium's royal meteorological institute recorded "tropical temperatures" of up to 35 degrees in the north.

Director of the National Centre for Scientific Research, in France, Herve Le Treut said the unusually high temperatures were linked to global warming.

"The rules are changing, there’s no doubt about it. This is the start of a process. We can expect heat waves to be more frequent and more extreme as a result of the general rise in temperatures linked to greenhouse gas emissions," said

Across in the US, a 23-year-old disabled man died after he was left in a van by accident, in suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday, authorities said. Another man, 76, died in a home in Oklahoma City where the air conditioner was broken and the body of a 62-year-old woman was discovered in another home where the air conditioning had not been turned on.

Forecasters predicted temperatures hovering around 43 degrees in Nebraska today. Only slightly more bearable in the cities, the heat was expected to peak at 36 degrees in New York, and 37 degrees in Washington.

Yesterday in Central Park it was 35 degrees by 2:30pm, the National Weather Service said. Swimming pools have stayed open late and school dismissed early.

Transport has also been hindered by the heat. An electrical cable failed at LaGuardia Airport as temperatures rose to almost 37 degrees and knocked out power to terminals for several hours causing scores of flights to be cancelled.

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