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Yugoslavia and Bulgaria to Open Road to the Middle East BELGRADE, May 29 (Reuters) - Yugoslav and Bulgarian experts are on the verge of signing a deal to build the last link in a highway joining Europe and the Middle East, a Yugoslav road consultant said on Wednesday. The director-general of the Road Institute of Serbia, Petar Mitrovic, told Reuterss the 150-kilometre (90-mile) stretch of toll highway would boost road transport between the Bulgarian capital Sofia and Nis in south-eastern Serbia. "The agreement on the Yugoslav-Bulgarian joint project on the Nis-Sofia highway is close to signing," Mitrovic said. The route is the most direct overland link between the Middle East and Europe. A road already exists but it is narrow and comparatively slow. From Bulgaria, the route runs through the Balkan peninsula to Istanbul, then south to the Middle East. According to initial estimates, the highway is expected to cost $10 million per kilometre, bringing the total bill to $1.53 billion, Mitrovic said. "It is now up to Serbia's transport and finance ministries to work out with Bulgarian ministries whether to ask the World Bank or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Develpment (EBRD) for the project financing." If not, international tenders would be invited, Mitrovic said. According to preliminary estimates the new road would take at least three years to build, but an optimum time for the whole project would be five years, he said. At present around 7,000 to 8,000 cars travel the route each day, although Mitrovic said the highway would need at least 12,000 vehicles a day to be economically viable.

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