AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch students have developed
powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors. The lastet invention available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5 euros (70
pence-1 pound).

Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-coloured
and -flavoured drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.

"We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more
into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks,"
20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters.

Van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational
Institute, about an hour's drive from Amsterdam, came up with
the idea as part of their final-year project.

"Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it
to people below 16," said project member Martyn van Nierop.

The legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking is 16 in the
Netherlands.

In Germany, alcopops -- sweet drinks containing alcohol and
in powder form -- caused quite a stir when launched on to the
market. Alcohol powder, classified as a flavouring, was sold in
the United States three years ago.

The students said companies interested in making the
product commercially could avoid taxes because the alcohol was
in powder form. A number of companies are interested, they
said.