Bulgaria will discuss with German state development bank KfW ways for its indebted railways to keep 50 KfW-leased Siemens trains despite late payments, the transport minister said Tuesday.

Ivaylo Moskovski, who left with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and three other ministers Tuesday on a two-day trip to Germany, said he would offer KfW two payment options to keep the trains, which the bank threatened to claim back.

"The options are to cover the debt with money from the privatisation of (Bulgarian state railway) BDZ's cargo unit or from a World Bank loan, expected to be taken this year," Moskovski said.

A third option was a debt-equity swap with Germany's national railway company but Moskovski said Deutsche Bahn was not interested.

BDZ owes the German bank a total 160 million euros ($204 million) for the trains, which are the only modern component of its creaking rail fleet.

The heavily indebted company stopped paying installments on their lease in 2010.

Bulgaria's government hopes to save BDZ from the brink of bankruptcy through privatisation, restructuring and massive lay-offs, which are also a condition to secure a 240-million-euro BDZ loan from the World Bank.