ANTARES, Physics potential, progress and status

Observational neutrino astronomy can bring information also on particle physics that can not be obtained in other ways. In general this concerns processes at extreme energy and distance scales. Particularly of interest are cosmic accelerators, GUT phase transition remnants and dark matter annihilation. After four years of R&D the ANTARES Collaboration begins the actual construction of a neutrino telescope to be deployed at 2400 m depth near Toulon in the Mediterranean sea. The telescope will be particularly sensitive to high-energy upward-going neutrinos. The physics case, measurements, the structure of the detector and recent progress are discussed.