A national fund is likely to be set up to encourage private capital to invest in China's high-speed railway development and help ease the increasing financial burden stemming from intensified high-speed rail construction, a top railway official said on Thursday.

China's high-speed railway network will reach 18,000 km by 2015, Sheng Guangzu, minister of railways, told a national railway work conference.

That means more than 8,000 km of newly built high-speed railways will be put into service in three years.