The mother of pop star Bjork is determined to continue with her hunger strike against plans to build a power plant in the Icelandic wilderness despite becoming frail.

Hildure Runa Hauksdottir stopped eating three weeks ago in protest against an American company building a $3bn (£1.9bn) aluminium smelt and hydroelectric plant above Vatnajokull, Europe's largest glacier.

The 56-year-old has lost 14lbs (6kg) since she stopped eating and says she is having trouble recalling certain words and is tired.

"I'm not sure I could go on for another 40 days but it is incredible how much support I am getting and this helps a great deal," she said.

She has been surviving on a homeopathic tonic and tea made from hand-picked Icelandic herbs such as thyme, jarrow and angelica.

US firm Alcoa and the Icelandic Government has already begun building infrastructure to support the scheme.

Bjork has been vocally opposed to the power plant

But environmentalists fear the project will cause pollution and erosion into rivers and deltas, a theory supported by the World Wildlife Fund.

Bjork, famed for her work both as a solo artist and with her band The Sugarcubes, first opposed the building of the plant when it was first mooted in 1998.

Alcoa believes it will give Icelandic trade a chance to diversify away from its traditional but dwindling industries such as fishing and will create 1,000 permanent jobs.

Ms Hauksdottir, who helped her daughter produce her first record at the age of 11, is hoping her action will mobilise opposition to the project.

Wade Hughes, a member of Alcoa's Iceland project team, has maintained that the project would only alter a "relatively small" part of the wilderness area.

He has spoken to Ms Hauksdottir since she begun the hunger strike, urging her to stop.