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SOFIA – The European Investment Bank agreed Friday to help build Bulgarian highways together and could also provide financing for Sofia`s part of the Nabucco gas pipeline project, AFP reported.

"Bulgaria has the right to get funds from the EU budget but you have to be ready with projects," EIB President Philippe Maystadt said after talks with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

"So we discussed not only what the EIB could do to finance but also what the EIB could do to help prepare the projects," Maystadt said, noting that highway plans were a "priority" in the talks.

"Next month we will start the technical assessment for the preparation of the Struma highway ... which is part of the EU Corridor 4 (between Germany and Turkey)," Maystadt said.

According to Borisov, the EIB will help co-fund the 156-kilometre (97-mile) link from Sofia to the Kulata border checkpoint with Greece, which is to be built with money from the EU Transport Operational Programme.

EIB experts would also "monitor and control" the project, Borisov said without elaborating.

"This will guarantee swiftness, transparency and good expertise," he said.

Bulgaria has only about 400 kilometres of motorways and none of its border-to-border transport corridors is finished, prompting Borisov to make highway construction a priority of his government.

The Balkan country meanwhile lacks good project preparation capability to make full use of the billions of euros of funding available to it under EU programmes, experts said.

Sofia has already been stripped of part of the money in the past due to corruption concerns.

Borisov also said Friday that the EIB was ready to help finance Bulgaria's share in the EU flagship Nabucco pipeline project, bringing gas from the Caspian Sea region to Europe.

"We might use bank guarantees to draw money from the EIB to pay our share of 1.2 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars)," Borisov said.

Neither he nor Maystadt provided any details however.