The construction of a new bridge over the Danube linking Bulgaria and Romania will begin in 2008, the mayor of the Romanian city of Calarasi Nicolae Dragu said at a press conference on Tuesday. The bridge, which will link Calarasi with the Bulgarian city of Silistra, will be at Danube kilometre 360, in the easternmost part of the two countries' Danubian border, where the river is 800 metres wide.

The project was negotiated last summer between the mayors of the two cities, when both sides' duties and the construction site were agreed upon. The official documentation for the project has since been approved by both countries' governments, and the issuing of permits and setting of deadlines are currently being awaited. The project will be financed by two private firms, from Portugal and Oman, which will invest 160 million euro.

The bridge will be the third linking the two countries, after that linking Rousse and Giurgiu opened in 1954 in the central part of the two countries' common border, and the Vidin-Calafat bridge, currently under construction in the westernmost part.

During a special ceremony, Dragu and Razgrad mayor Dencho Boyadjiev signed an inter-municipal Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.