CALCUTTA, India -- Iran can become a bridge to the former Soviet states of Central Asia by offering road, rail and natural resource links for emerging Asian economies, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati said Wednesday.


"Iran can serve as a linking bridge between Central Asia, Middle East and Indian Ocean waters," he told delegates at the centenary celebrations of a leading business club in Calcutta.


Velayati said Iran, which has an Arabian Sea coastline, was ideally suited to link the Commonwealth of Independent States nations, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.


"At present, the most important rail link is between China and Alma-Ata," he said, referring to Iran's proximity to the CIS state.


Velayati spoke at length on the cultural links between Iran and the rest of Asia, focusing on the mostly Moslem CIS nations neighboring the Islamic republic. Teheran offered vital air links to the capitals of these republics, Velayati said.


"Recent changes have created conditions for the revival of age-old ties," he said, in an apparent reference to the collapse of the Soviet Union.


Velayati arrived Monday to a warm welcome that ended a sourness caused by President Hashemi Rafsanjani cancelling a scheduled visit to Delhi last year after a plague outbreak in India.


He said India's 120 million Moslems, one-seventh of the nation, laid the basis for strong cultural links with New Delhi.


Central Asia offered significant economic potential, he said. "Studies show that Central Asia has the largest natural gas reserves after Siberia."


Velayati said Iran and India, with their entrepreneurial skills, could enter into contracts to run cotton mills in these countries.


He cited the building of steel complexes, machinery units and small businesses in Iran as an example of the nation's economic potential.


Iran, whose economy was clouded for a decade by a fervent 1979 Moslem radical revolution that sidestepped many economic problems, was now trying to find opportunities in the emerging economies of Asia.


"The existence of amity and a common cultural heritage shall consolidate the foundations," he said.


Velayati said feasibility studies were being conducted into building an India-Iran natural gas pipeline, which could serve as a key link with the South Asian economy.


India, opening up its sheltered economy under a three-year-old reform program, has identified natural gas from the Middle East and Iran as a key energy source to meet its growing needs.


The proposed multi-billion dollar pipeline is a key talking point between the two nations.


India and Iran could also take up fertilizer projects based on natural gas, and jointly build railways, Velayati said.