RVR executives and government officials met to discuss the future of the two lines to the north and oil-rich west of Uganda but no agreement was reached, said a finance ministry official who asked not to be identified.
RVR won a 25-year concession to run the Ugandan and Kenyan railways jointly in 2006 but has irked both governments by failing to restructure and recapitalise the operation and make significant investment in the network.
Uganda took back control of the parts of the network linking Kampala to the west and north in 2008.
Following a legal wrangle involving feuding RVR shareholders, Egypt's Citadel Capital is now the dominant stakeholder with 51 percent via its subsidiary Ambience Ventures.
The finance ministry official said RVR's new shareholders were asking not to be judged "on the record of other people's failures" and wanted the the tracks returned.
In the 1970s and 1980s the rail network in landlocked Uganda -- the main link to Kenya's Mombasa port -- ran to the north and west of the country where it ferried copper ore.
However, years of political upheaval, economic decline and the ending of copper mining led to a fall-off in the rail business and the two sections of track soon fell into disrepair. They have been out of use for years.
Uganda struck commercial hydrocarbon deposits in western Uganda in 2006 and reserves are estimated at 2 billion barrels. Analysts say the country will have to construct a pipeline or use rail to ship the petroleum from the remote region. (Reuters)
