BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The railway freight volume between China and Russia totaled 33.8 million tons in 2006, an increase of 11 percent year on year, China's Ministry of Railways said here Friday.

    Manzhouli, the main crossing on the Sino-Russian border, put through 21 million tons of freight last year, including 32,683 containers, up 42 percent year on year, the ministry said.

    Trains from the two countries carried 6.2 million tons of freight in the first two months of 2007, up 17.5 percent year on year, the ministry said without elaborating.

    The surge is partly due to oil shipments, experts explained.

    In 2006, railways carried 10.3 million tons of crude oil between China and Russia, an increase of almost 30 percent, according to the ministry.

    Rail freight grew by 26 percent annually in the 1995-2005 period, rising from 7.7 million to 30.9 million tons, according to official data.