TASHKENT, Aug 29: Afghanistan and Uzbekistan agreed here on Sunday to push ahead with a mammoth road-building project intended to make their countries a lucrative trade link between Asia and the Gulf.

A unique opportunity has appeared for Afghanistan to serve as a transit country between South-East Asia and the Gulf, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told journalists.

Meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, Mr Abdullah and his Uzbek counterpart Sadyk Safayev outlined plans for Uzbek contractors to build a road across war-torn northern Afghanistan between the towns of Andhoi and Herat.

The eventual aim - agreed last summer at a summit of Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan's presidents - is to extend the road from Uzbekistan southwards through Afghanistan to Iran's Gulf Coast, possibly supplemented by a railway.

Uzbekistan has simultaneously been pushing for construction of a rail link eastward through Kyrgyzstan and deep into China in order to create a complete oil transit route between China and the Persian Gulf.

Sceptical observers in Kabul however say that Afghanistan would benefit more if neighbours such as Pakistan and Uzbekistan matched Afghanistan's own success in introducing hi-tech systems and cutting red-tape on its borders.

Transit across the region is currently painfully slow, with Afghan trucks having to unload and transfer their goods to Pakistani trucks when entering Pakistan for example.

In practice Uzbekistan has severely limited official transit of goods across its border with Afghanistan, although huge quantities of illegal heroin continue to flow out of Afghanistan via its former Soviet neighbours to the north.

The parties to the road-building project have yet to agree its route southwards beyond Herat, with Iran wanting it to cover as little Afghan territory as possible. -AFP