The Indonesian government is turning to China for the 400 million U.S. dollars it needs to finance the construction of a subway line in the capital, after a planned financing scheme from Japan fell through, a report in Jakarta said Tuesday.

With deadlocked negotiations with Japan unlikely to be resolved in time by the end of the month, the government would seek other financing schemes because it remained committed to the project, said The Jakarta Post, quoting a minister as saying.

"There are many alternatives," said State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta.

"We can still propose the project to Japan next year, but we have in the meantime also been receiving several financing schemes which are more on the same terms with our needs."

Proposals from China are among those the government is at present seriously considering, Paskah said, as well as ones from the Islamic Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Paskah did not elaborate on the new financing schemes, but said issues surrounding the subway project's financing would be unlikely to cause a delay or a cancellation of the project itself.

"The project was actually not planned to commence this year. Its engineering design phase will only begin in 2007, while its physical construction would be in 2008," he said.

The subway line is planned to stretch 14.3 kilometers, running through the capital's residential and business districts from Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, to Dukuh Atas, Central Jakarta.

Source: Xinhua