China's Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest rail system, is being threatened by desertification on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a result of global warming, experts concluded after conducting a probe.

About 443 km of the 1,956-km railway are in areas affected by desertification, including 103 km that lie in seriously desertified areas, Wang Jinchang, a senior engineer with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Co, said on Monday.

Wang cited research showing that the threat of soil erosion grew very fast in recent years, mostly near rivers and wetland from Golmud and Lhasa, and the amount of affected track almost doubled from 2003 to 2009.