On Monday, the Austrian government pledged its financial support of a possible bid with their Alpine neighbors.
The talks will continue even though UEFA, European soccer's ruling body, have hinted strongly they are not in favour of any further joint-bids for the Championships.
Last summer's Euro 2000 was the first to be jointly hosted between Belgium and the Netherlands and although next year's World Cup finals are also being co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, FIFA are also against any more shared finals.
Austrian soccer federation president Beppo Mauhart, who will be holding the talks with his Swiss counterpart Ralph Zloczower, said a joint bid with Hungary was now "out of the question."
Austria and their easternmost neighbors Hungary made an unsuccessful bid for the 2004 European championship finals which were awarded to Portugal.
Mauhart said discussions with Zloczower would include the organisation, scheduling of the event as well as possible venues.
"The bid should be ready by the end of the year or, latest, by spring 2002," said Mauhart.
The Austrian news agency APA said Switzerland still had to construct a 40,000-all seater stadium which might be built in Zurich, Bern, Geneva or St Gallen.
If the bid was successful, Mauhart said the final match would probably be staged at Vienna's Ernst Happel stadium.
A new stadium being currently constructed in Salzburg for 19,000 will be expanded to seat 30,000 in the case of a successful bid as will the recently inaugurated Tivoli stadium in Innsbruck.
A number of countries are still considering joint bids for the finals, including a possible Nordic bid from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and maybe Finland.
A proposed joint bid from Scotland, Wales and Ireland is unlikely to be pursued, although Scotland has hinted it may bid for the finals alone.
Reuters
Austrian and Swiss soccer officials will meet in Bern on March 9 to discuss a possible joint bid to host the 2008 European Championships, officials said on Tuesday.
