Oct 27 (Reuters) - The Panama Canal authority said on Monday it had launched an initiative to identify parties that could be interested in developing port terminals on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of one of the world's top freight waterways.

Representatives from APM Terminals, Cosco Shipping Ports, CMA Terminals–CMA, DP World, Hanseatic Global Terminals, MOL, PSA International, SSA Marine–Grupo Carrix and Terminal Investment Limited took part in a first meeting, it said.

The meeting also saw representation from CMA CGM, ONE, Evergreen, Hapag Lloyd, HMM, Maersk Line, MSC, OOCL, COSCO, Yang Ming, Port of Houston and ZIM, the authority said in a statement.

(Reporting by Raul Cortes and Sarah Morland, Editing by Natalia Siniawski)

((sarah.morland@thomsonreuters.com;))