Afghan Minister for Mines Ibrahim Adil has said that his ministry had discovered varieties of mines worth of 300 billion U.S. dollars in Afghanistan's central high lands, a local newspaper reported Saturday.

     Daily Outlook quoted the minister, who had recently visited the above provinces, as saying the coal mine reservoir discovered in Yakawlang district of Bamyan province could be more than 200 million tons.

     He said that the iron mine discovered in the same district could have some 1 billion tons of the metal.

     The mining of the entire underground treasury would be leased to private sectors in future, according to officials at the ministry.

     Afghanistan has already leased its biggest copper mine in Logar province to the China Metallurgical Group Corp. months ago.

     Meantime, a press release of the Afghan Foreign Ministry issued here Saturday said that Afghan Minister for Public Work Dr. Sohrab Ali Saffary and Italian ambassador to Afghanistan Ettore Francesco Sequi will sign an agreement for the rehabilitation of the second section of the Maidan Shar-Bamyan Road today.

     Work on the 136-km road linking Kabul through Wardak province to the central Bamyan province began in 2006 with 151 million U.S. dollars financial support from Italy and is expected to be completed within the next three years.