INTERVIEW-Portugal to go ahead with high-speed train

* Portugal to press on with Madrid-Lisbon high-speed train link * Government has no doubt about financing * No going back on plan

By Elisabete Tavares

LISBON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Portugal's Socialist government will push ahead with a 7.8 billion euro ($10 billion) plan to develop a high-speed rail link with Spain and aims to launch all tenders for the project this year, a senior official said on Friday.

Ana Paula Vitorino, the government's secretary of state for transport, told Reuters the plan would be key to help Portugal ride out the economic slump and said financing for the project is not in question.

The plan for a high-speed rail link from Lisbon to Madrid has been discussed for years and the centre-right opposition has said the country cannot afford the project. The Socialist government, which faces an election later this year, also wants to invest in a new airport for Lisbon.

Vitorino said the rail link was well worth the effort, adding that the construction will create 100,000 direct jobs and a further 36,000 jobs in services and maintenance once it is up and running.

"We don't have time to lose more opportunities," Vitorino said. "We have a crisis which, one on hand, is strongly impacting the economy but crises don't last forever. We are talking about investments that will be completed in 2013 and 2015, after the crisis."

Vitorino brushed off talk that the plan would come to nothing if the Socialists lose the general election. The Socialists currently lead in opinion polls.

"I don't think of this (of delay) scenario because the Socialists will win the elections," she said.

She said roughly half the financing for the TGV will come from public funds, about 19 percent of which will come from European Union coffers.

The rest of the financing will come from resources from the European Investment Bank, banks and resources from the companies that win the tenders.

There will be a total of five tenders for different sections of the train line and another one for the trains themselves. One of the sections will include a new bridge to be built over the Tagus River, which should also link Lisbon to the proposed new airport south of the river.

Highway operator Brisa and builder Mota-Engil have been shortlisted in the tender to build the first section of the train line.

Those two are expected to bid in subsequent tenders, which should also draw interest from major European construction firms. (Reporting by Elisabete Tavares; writing by Axel Bugge; Editing by Andy Bruce)