The top oil and gas companies of China and Kazakhstan have signed an agreement to build a crude oil pipeline to help slake this country\'s insatiable thirst for fuel. State-owned China National Petroleum Corp. and Kazakhstan\'s KazMunaiGaz signed the agreement Monday to complete a 625-mile pipeline from Atasu, in northwestern Kazakhstan, to the border of China\'s northwestern Xinjiang region. The size of the investment was not given. The deal came as Kazakhstan\'s president, Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev, on a four-day visit to Beijing, and President Hu Jintao signed a broad agreement for joint exploration and development of oil and gas resources in the Caspian Sea. The two sides are also stepping up consideration of plans for a natural gas pipeline to connect gas fields in the Caspian Sea with China, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. In 1997, China and Kazakhstan signed an agreement to build a 1,875-mile-long oil pipeline. The western section of that pipeline, spanning 280 miles, began operation in March. Construction on the section from Atasu to the Alataw Pass on Xinjiang\'s border is expected to begin sometime this year, according to earlier reports. Plans for the remaining section of the pipeline were not given. The two countries also signed an agreement to build up international passenger and freight rail transport, as part of an effort to boost trade and complete routes through Kazakhstan to Europe. A China-Kazakhstan rail link opened in 1992. (AP)