BERLIN - Germany's national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, said Tuesday that it was considering buying trains and spare parts from China in the future.

"In three to five years from now, Asia and China in particular can assume a key role in supplying Deutsche Bahn with trains and spare parts," board member Heike Hanagarth told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday.

According to Hanagarth, Deutsche Bahn's objective is to cooperate with Chinese train makers CSR and CNR, and the company plans to open a purchasing office in Beijing as early as this coming fall.

As a first step, Deutsche Bahn would reportedly start to buy part of its annually required 35,000 wheel sets in China from 2017.