The railway would link Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba in the south with the Syrian border, through Amman and then the industrial city of Zarqa, the ministry said in a report carried by the official Petra news agency.

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Covering more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles), the railway would also link the Saudi and Iraqi borders with Jordan's northern city of Irbid as well as the northeastern towns of Mafraq and Azraq.

The report recommended that Iraqi crude oil be carried via rail, scrapping plans to build a 260-million-dollar pipeline between the two countries.

"Lack of funds is the only problem facing the project, which should be completed by 2013, and any delay would increase the costs," Petra quoted the report as saying.

Amman and Baghdad agreed last year to study the possibility of building an oil pipeline from Iraq's Haditha pumping station to Aqaba.

At the end of 2004, Jordan said it would conduct a feasibility study into building a pipeline between Haditha and Jordan's sole refinery in the industrial city of Zarqa, northeast of Amman.

The kingdom was entirely dependent on Iraq for its oil before the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein, importing 5.5 million tonnes a year by road, half of it free of charge and the rest at preferential rates.

In June, Iraq agreed to renew a 2006 deal to provide Jordan, which imports 95 percent of its energy needs, with between 10 and 30 percent of its daily oil requirements of around 100,000 barrels at a preferential price.

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Jordan seeks $6.1 bln for railway project

Chinaview: 2008-07-27

AMMAN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Jordan is in urgent need of 4.3 billion Jordanian dinars (about 6.1 billion U.S. dollars) to finance a railway project linking its major cities and economic centers with neighboring countries, local daily Jordan Times reported on Sunday.

Around 4 billion dollars are needed for infrastructure while another 2 billion dollars are needed for rail fleet, according to a study released by the Jordan's Transport Ministry.

The proposed railway project consists of two lines, the north-south line from the Syrian border to Aqaba passing through Mafraq, Zarqa, Amman and Maan, and the east-west line extending from the Iraqi to Saudi borders passing through Mafraq, Irbid and Azraq, said the study.

The speed of cargo trains is designed to reach 120 km per hour and that for passenger trains 160 km per hour, it added.

Scheduled to be finished by 2013, the railway might also be an alternative to a pipeline project between Jordan and Iraq that designed to transport Iraqi oil.

Jordan's Minister of Transport Alaa Batayneh said his ministry has started expropriating land for the railway track which stretches 1,080 km.

Jordan was among 13 Arab countries that approved a railway linkage agreement during meetings of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which requested those countries to implement their internal railway network in a period of 10 to 15 years. (1 dollar= 0.708 dinar)