The government and ruling coalition gave the go-ahead Friday for new bullet train projects in Hokkaido, Kyushu and the Hokuriku region.

The government and ruling bloc -- the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito -- approved the new projects during a meeting of their working group at the prime minister's office.

The new projects are the Hokkaido Shinkansen Line's Aomori-Hakodate section, the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line's Toyama-Kanazawa section and the Takeo Onsen-Isahaya section of the Kyushu Shinkansen's Nagasaki Line.

Fumio Kyuma, chairman of the LDP General Council, told reporters after the meeting that the government and ruling parties agreed that all three projects should be started simultaneously in fiscal 2005.

They expect the projects to be completed in about 10 years, he said.

They also agreed to move up the completion of the ongoing construction of three sections of the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, although they did not set a completion date, Kyuma said.

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has estimated the new projects will cost a total 1.16 trillion yen. But it is reviewing the estimate to gain support from the Finance Ministry, which wants to cut public works spending.

The government and ruling parties will decide on details of the projects soon, including the date of completion, and will officially endorse the projects possibly by the end of next week.