Traditional financing tools such as bank loans, bonds and shares cannot provide the astronomical funds required to build the high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai.

"New ways of raising funds are needed," Wang Ming, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, told Beijing Business Today, a local newspaper in an interview.

The construction of the Beijing-Shanghai express railway, which was supposed to start last year, has been delayed because the original budget underestimated the cost of construction by more than 50 percent.

Some experts estimate the total funds needed for the railway project may hit 200 billion yuan (26 billion U.S. dollars). When the railway is finished in 2010, the nine-hour trip will only take five hours.

The project should start as soon as possible, said Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan last Thursday.

China's insurance industry will cough up about 80 billion yuan for the project, said Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, without specifying how the money will be invested.

China is expected to invest 1.25 trillion yuan in railway construction in the 11th Five-Year Program (2006-10). About 256 billion yuan will be spent in 2007, 100 billion more than in 2006.