TIRANA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The transport ministers from southeastern Europe countries agreed at a meeting in Athens on Friday to build a regional high-speed railway network, the Macedonian Information Agency reported.

    Transport ministers from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria,Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro and Turkey agreed that an efficient transport system was essential to the economic and social advancement in southeast Europe.

    Greek transport minister Mihalis Liapis said that the joint declaration of the meeting envisaged a railway network connecting all the region's capitals would be built by 2020.

    The railway network, as part of effort in the South East European Cooperation Process, will consists of 16 rail axes. "The network will have faster, higher-quality and more competitive rail connections between urban and commercial centers for passengers and freight services," the declaration said.

    The Southeast European Cooperation Process is a non-institutionalized regional cooperation structure. It was created in 1996, when Bulgaria organized a meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs, to lay the foundation of a new cooperation forum,following the birth of new countries in the Balkans. Enditem