Bangladesh says India to agree Nepal railway

DHAKA (Reuters) - India will allow Bangladesh to set up long-awaited railway links for transporting commercial goods to and from landlocked Nepal, officials said on Saturday.

"The agreement will be signed during the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India," Foreign Secretary Mohammad Mijarul Quayesh told reporters after meeting his Indian counterpart, Nirupama Rao.

Hasina will go to India on a four-day visit from Dec. 18 to boost bilateral ties and resolve minor disputes over land and maritime boundaries.

The visit will be Hasina's first to India after returning to power with a landslide victory in parliamentary elections late last year.

The agreement would fulfil Bangladesh's long-held desire to set up railway links with Nepal which wants to use Bangladesh's Chittagong and Mongla ports for its external trade, another foreign ministry official said.

Rao, who took office in August, described her first visit to Bangladesh as "fruitful and constructive".

(Reporting by Nizam Ahmed)