SEOUL, Aug 28 (AFP) - North and South Korea on Wednesday opened a new round of economic talks to re-link railways and roads that have been cut off for 50 years by the world's last Cold War frontier.

The inter-Korean economic cooperation meeting, which resumed after a 20-month hiatus, is seen as a key test for putting the rapprochement process back on track.

The talks in Seoul will last until Friday.

"Each side presented its own ideas about concrete schedules and ways to reconnect the cross-border railways and roads," said Cho Myong-Kyun of South Korea's unification ministry after the early session of talks.

"Both sides also exchanged opinions about technical issues."

He refused to elaborate on the agenda which also included food aid given by the South to the famine-stricken North.

But Seoul's official Yonhap news agency said the North's delegation requested rice from the South at the beginning of the closed-door session.

Seoul officials have said unless the new talks produce tangible progress on the delayed project to re-connect the railways and roads, the South would not give any food aid to the North.

Head delegates have voiced cautious optimism about the second round of economic cooperation talks. The first round was held in December 2000.

Before the opening of the talks, Vice Finance and Economy Minister Yoon Jin-Shik, the South's chief delegate, told the North's chief negotiator Pak Chang-Ryon that the talks should produce concrete accords.

Pak, first deputy chairman of the North's State Planning Commission, responded: "It is time to put things into practice, not speak. Let's try to give hope and joy to the whole nation and the world watching us."

The new economic talks are also expected to cover the South's offer to build an industrial complex in the North and joint anti-flood efforts along the border.

But the South's interest is focused on the proposed reconnection of the cross-border railways and roads, an unfulfilled accord reached between the leaders of the two Koreas during a summit in June 2000.

The South has completed work on the railway and highway links up to the edge of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) which splits the peninsula, but the North has done virtually nothing.

Work to clear thousands of landmines inside the DMZ cannot start until a military accord is hammered out. Military authorities from the two Koreas will have to hold separate talks to guarantee the safety of the proposed de-mining work inside the border.

There are two cross-border railways -- one to link up with China and the other with Russia -- that both Koreas have been working to relink.

The South has completed work on its side to rebuild the railway route leading up to China, but work has yet to start on the route up to where Russia's trans-Siberian railway runs to Europe.

North Korea seems to be more interested in re-linking the railway route to Russia than the one to China, according to media reports.

Seoul's Hankyoreh newspaper said the North Korean delegation would return home via Russia, not China, to discuss the railway linkage.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il last week visited the Far East and held a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin who has expressed a keen interest in the railway project to revive the depressed region.

jkw/evz

Nampa-AFP WEB story ENDS (NAMPA 281312)