Deal for Europe-Asia railway corridor signed

Tbilisi, Feb 8: Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a 422 million dollars deal today to build a railway corridor between Europe and Asia.

The Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway, due for completion in 2009, follows the construction of major oil and gas pipelines that have turned the three countries into a strategic energy artery.

Until now there has been no direct rail link between neighbours Georgia and Turkey, a legacy of the Cold War when the region was a front line between NATO and the Soviet Union.

''This project will become a geopolitical turning point in our region and a strategic link between Asian and European countries,'' Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said at the signing ceremony.

Building of the railway is expected to start in June and is scheduled for completion within two years.

At present goods moving overland through the region, a historic trade crossroads that was part of the ancient Silk Route, have to travel along potholed roads or go through Iran to the south and Russia to the north.

Ilham Aliyev, president of energy-rich Azerbaijan, and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan were also at the ceremony.

In ex-Soviet Georgia the project will involve construction of a new 29-km stretch of railway and the repair of an 183-km section.

In Turkey a 76-km stretch will be built from scratch.

Azerbaijan has said it will lend Tbilisi 200 million dollars for work on the Georgian section of the railway.

Turkey said last month it planned to build a rail tunnel beneath the Bosphorus Strait, part of a wider aim of creating a direct rail link between Europe and China.

Two new pipelines run by BP-led consortia -- the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas route -- already link the three countries.

They ship energy reserves from the Caspian Sea to world markets, bypassing Russia which until now has had a virtual stranglehold on oil and gas exports from the region.

Saakashvili, Aliyev and Erdogan also attended the opening ceremony for a new international airport in Tbilisi, which was built by a consortium of Turkish companies.

Reuters