Plans are going ahead for a 1,010-kilometer highway running from Dogharoun in northwestern Iran and transiting Afghanistan to Termez, Uzbekistan, with trilateral talks between the countries concerned due to start soon. Tehran said the project will contribute to the reconstruction of Afghanistan and "promote exchanges between Iran and Uzbekistan," whose bilateral trade has been falling and was worth $135 million in 2001. The highway project is only part of a larger conception of regional development rooted in the memorandum of understanding, signed on 12 April by Iranian Minister of Roads and Transport Ahmad Khorram and Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Yunisov, about establishing air, road, and rail connections between the two countries, the Iranian news agency IRNA said. Tehran has been working on improving its transport ties with Central Asia since linking its railway system to Turkmenistan's in 1997. The first rail route between Tehran and Almaty opened last month. (CNA)