The line, which will cut travel time between the nation's capital and economic hub from 13 hours to five, is expected to start ferrying passengers in 2010, the China Daily quoted Railways Minister Liu Zhijun as saying.

Work on the line was supposed to begin last year but had been postponed and would begin "soon", Liu said, without giving a reason for the delay.

The China Daily said the project, which has been on the drawing board for 10 years, was now expected to cost 170 billion yuan (22.6 billion dollars), 40 billion yuan more than initially estimated.

Rising real estate prices and higher costs to resettle people who will be forced from their homes are the main reasons for the cost blow-out, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.

The train is expected to eventually run at 350 kilometres an hour (217 miles an hour).

China in April joined an elite group including Japan and several European nations running high speed trains when it began offering short-distance high-speed services around the nation.

The trains, capable of reaching speeds of 250 kilometres (155 miles) an hour, are aimed at alleviating overcrowding on what is still the nation's most critical form of transport.

However, currently only about 6,000 kilometres (3,720 miles) of track can accommodate high-speed trains, with most restricted to 160 kilometres an hour on 14,000 kilometres of sub-standard track.

Until upgrades are completed by 2010, most high-speed capable trains will be forced to chug along at a mere 120 kilometres an hour over another 22,000 kilometres.

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