Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is expected to build nine railways covering more than 2,000 km of track to link the Muslim area with other parts of the country and central and south Asia before 2020, a local railway official said on Thursday.

They included a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, a China-Pakistan railway and seven railways linking the region with neighboring Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Qinghai and Gansu provinces, said Wu Jian, the Urumqi Railway Bureau deputy head.

The new lines will provide a faster link between western China and central Asia and improve the southern passageway of the new Euro-Asia continental bridge.

Xinjiang opened its first railway in 1962. Currently, it has more than 3,000 km of rail line and another 2,200 km of track is under construction.

Currently the only rail linking Xinjiang with central Asia is a 460-km line between Urumqi and the Alataw Pass where it connects to Kazakhstan's railway.

China and its central Asian neighbors have been carrying out feasibility studies to improve their rail network amid growing trade in recent years.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2008)