Authorities urged consumers to cut back on water usage and in many places imposed bans on hosepipes and sprinklers and prohibited filling swimming pools or washing automobiles.

French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau said the immediate problem was to get through the summer with minimal disruption. In the long run, he said, there was a need for serious debate about the long-term supply of water in France, where in some parts of the west of the country, restrictions on hose-pipe use have been on place since April.

It could be a question of embarking on a huge program of building new reservoirs, or switching to crops that require less water. Already farmers are moving to crop varieties that ripen earlier in the year.

"We must not confuse heat wave with drought," Bussereau said. "The shortage of water in a large part of France dates from well before the current period of extreme heat."

Bussereau appealed on Europe 1 radio Wednesday for more civic consciousness to use less water rather than imposing a "drought tax."

"The situation is very difficult, but not as serious as in Portugal," he said.

In Portugal, which was facing its worst drought in 60 years, conditions were described as extreme in half of the country by the national water institute. Wells have run dry in 25 villages, and trucks have been called in to supply 19,000 affected residents.

In Spain, which is suffering one of the driest years on record, reservoirs have shrunk to almost half their normal volume, fields are parched and forest fires pose a growing danger of desertification in the European country most affected by this problem.

But Spanish Environment Minister Cristina Narbona was anxious to avoid sounding alarmist as the country's critically important tourist season was about to get under way.

She said water supplies to major urban centers was "guaranteed" at least until September.

The government has launched a publicity campaign appealing to people to save water even in small ways.

"Drop by drop, we will create a river," state the advertisments.

The average Spaniard uses 165 liters of water a day, whereas "50 liters per person a day is enough," said Ricardo Petrella, who has just completed a report on water for the international development charity Oxfam.

Despite torrential downpours that turned streams into torrents in northern Britain and flooded hundreds of basements in the Paris region earlier this week, there was no respite from the growing risk of drought.

Meteorologists said freak rainfall dumped too much water in too short a time to replenish water tables. What was needed, they said, was a prolonged period of rain. Spain's environment minister said that because of the long period of less than normal rainfall, "the summer storms serve for nothing."

In fact, they can cause more harm than good by washing away topsoil.

In London, Mayor Ken Livingstone appealed to citizens to flush toilets less frequently, take showers instead of baths and not use a hose to water the garden. He said one third of London's domestic water supply was flushed down the toilet.

With the prolonged heat came pollution and ozone warnings in some areas affected with heavy traffic and industrial effluents.

In the industrialized Rhone river valley of France, traffic speed limits were sharply reduced this week to prevent the build-up of ozone.

Because of increased use of air-conditioning, electricity supplies in France, which come mostly from nuclear generating stations, were described by the national energy grid Wednesday as "stretched but not critical."

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