Bulgaria will start building its second bridge over the Danube River in June 2004, Coordinator of the Stability Pact for Bulgaria Milen Keremedchiev told the Bulgarian National Radio on Sunday.

Funds for building the bridge -- between the Bulgarian port of Vidin, 210 kilometers north of Sofia, and the Romanian port of Calafat on the opposite bank -- will be provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Keremedchiev said. He explained that experts at Bulgaria's Transport Ministry have drawn up two projects for the construction, which could be a suspension bridge or one made of concrete.

In the opinion of Vidin Mayor Ivan Tsenov the deadlines for launching the real construction of the bridge have been groundlessly prolonged due to technical details in the project. Tsenov underlined that a series of talks have been held over that issue but the delay in selecting international consultant and the election of the current government has pushed to the background Danube Bridge II that should be a priority project for the country.

Construction of the bridge is expected to create 1200 new jobs.