The government and the three ruling parties agreed Monday to begin construction of new sections of shinkansen tracks in the Hokuriku and Kyushu regions at a cost of 2.5 trillion yen to the central and local governments over roughly 12 years.

Despite rising public criticism against the government's snowballing debts and unnecessary public work projects, the government and ruling coalition decided to budget for new shinkansen stretches for the first time in four years.

The work will begin in fiscal 2001, which begins April 1.

According to the agreement, the government will start building shinkansen rails linking Nagano and Toyama prefectures, hoping to complete the job in about 12 years.

The three stretches of track to be built under Monday's agreement are between Joetsu and Itoigawa in Niigata Prefecture, between Shin-kurobe and Toyama in Toyama Prefecture, and between Hakata and Funagoya in Fukuoka Prefecture.

Furthermore, the government and the ruling bloc agreed that current construction of super-express tracks between Itoigawa and Shin-kurobe will be upgraded to shinkansen rails, government officials said.

In addition, the Hakata-Funagoya section of the Kyushu shinkansen line will be connected to rails currently being built between Funagoya and Nishi-kagoshima, which will also be upgraded from super-express gauge to bullet train gauge, the officials said.

However, the parties involved decided not to begin work on the full route of the Hokuriku shinkansen line, which local municipalities hope to see extended south of the city of Fukui. The matter will be reviewed after construction on other sections of the shinkansen network -- linking Morioka in Iwate Prefecture and Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture, and Nishi-kagoshima in Kagoshima Prefecture and Shin-yashiro in Kumamoto Prefecture -- are completed.

Monday's decision is based on a shinkansen construction plan originally adopted in 1973 and repeatedly frozen due to concerns over its profitability.

Recent studies have reportedly dispelled those concerns.

The current shinkansen plan, based on a 1970 law drawn up under the Cabinet of then Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, called for five shinkansen lines to be built in the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokuriku and Kyushu regions.

According to the law, construction costs are to be covered by the central and local governments by a ratio of 2 to 1.

If the remaining sections are built, the plan, often regarded as a huge pork-barrel for ruling party lawmakers, will cost more than 7 trillion yen, according to estimates by the Transport Ministry.