PETROZAVODSK, June 23 (RIA Novosti-Northwest, Alexei Ukkone) - The CIS and Russia intend to build a "new Silky Way" to transport cargo via railroad from China to Europe, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said Thursday.

Levitin said the project would be discussed at a CIS conference Friday.

Containers will be transported along the China-Kazakhstan-Russia-Ukraine route, with further redistribution through Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, and finally via further transit to Italy and Portugal.

Levitin called the tariff policy one of the main unresolved problems of transport projects in Russia and the CIS. The tariffs in some CIS countries are half as high as the tariff set by Russian Railways, he said.

This issue will be discussed at the conference. Levitin said there was understanding between Russia and the CIS in this regard.