Still baring traces of the Tsarist era, the region's rail network and other infrastructure is now part of plans by Washington for a vital new supply route to support President Barack Obama's military surge against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

Western countries hope to send supplies like drinking water, food, fuel and building materials to Afghanistan via the route, despite Russian unease at the US presence in Central Asia already seen in moves to close a US airbase in Kyrgyzstan.

With Obama's reputation riding on the surge and another route through Pakistan under attack, there is a real need for what Washington calls the "northern distribution network," says Robert Ayers, a security specialist at the London-based research centre Chatham House.

"Especially if the United States is going to send an additional 15,000 to 17,000 combat personnel into Afghanistan, the requirement becomes more of a necessity," he said.

With its elegant domes and golden sphinxes, Russia's presence still lingers in the tsarist-era passenger hall at Arys, the meeting point of two monumental rail lines that once helped bring this region under Moscow's rule: the Trans-Aral from western Russia and the Turk-Sib from Siberia.

Today as Washington lays its plans, a resurgent Russia is paying increasing attention to its former Central Asian dominions and trying to exert control, say analysts.

Moscow has agreed to non-lethal shipments across its territory on the railway to Central Asia -- described in the 1930s by Swiss traveller Ella Maillart as: "horizontal infinities of sand that tremble in the heat, flat sea, unending steppe, and disappearing rails."

Shipments are to start in the coming weeks, with the United States sending a test batch of building material from the Latvian port of Riga through Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to Afghanistan. The eventual plan is to ship 20-30 trainloads a week.

"Our main focus is on rail transport links," the US embassy in Moscow told AFP. "The United States is seeking Russian cooperation in our efforts and those of our allies to bring stability to Afghanistan."

Germany is also preparing a similar shipment, likely to include food, water, blankets and non-lethal equipment and to take four weeks on the 5,200-kilometre (3,200 mile) route, a diplomatic source told AFP.

-- Russia wants American and Western concessions --

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But some question Russia's consent to a route once used by Stalin to ship entire ethnic groups to Central Asia as well as mustard gas stocks that were dumped near Arys. Russia still uses the line for shipping its space rockets to the Baikonur launch centre in Kazakhstan.

Moscow-based security expert Pavel Felgenhauer describes the Russian consent as highly conditional.

He points to Russian pressure on Kyrgyzstan to close its US airbase and says that since its recent war in Georgia, Russia has gained an effective veto on a Georgian route to Central Asia by moving tanks and artillery close to that country's transport artery.

"Russia is looking to get American and Western concessions," said Felgenhauer, referring to wider differences over issues such as missile defence and US support for Georgia and Ukraine.

"The Western presence in Central Asia is basically seen as an alien presence.... Basically we see the Taliban as an enemy, but the US and Western states also as an enemy.

"We're saying 'Yes, of course. But...,'" said Felgenhauer.

As for the Central Asian states, US officials have criss-crossed the region holding talks with national leaders and say Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are on board.

Nonetheless, some experts warn of pitfalls in a region where infrastructure is weak, politics unpredictable and national borders often tense and corrupt.

The Kazakh-Uzbek border just south of Arys itself has a reputation for murkiness -- evident from the young men who hang around at checkpoints offering unofficial, visa-free passage for a fee.

The border is part of a "fight over toys" between vying presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev and Islam Karimov, said Kazakh opposition leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, who comes from the area.

As for the United States' declared hopes of using Tajikistan's roads and railways, these look naive, says Paul Quinn-Judge, regional analyst for the International Crisis Group.

"I really doubt anyone's driven on these roads in Tajikistan, otherwise they wouldn't be betting on that.

"They're getting out of one logistical nightmare in Pakistan but maybe moving into another.... I haven't seen at this point a convincing explanation of what the route is going to be," he said.

In Arys, a dusty town of 40,000 people, little information about the plans seems to have filtered through.

Kazakhstan's rail network is "limping," corrupt and dependent on Russia for replacement parts, asserts an ex-head of the rail junction who now lectures at the local railway college, Baiseit Dysebayev.

But he gives a cautious welcome to the US transit plans.

"If it's for weapons, torpedoes, rockets, I'd be against," he said. "But if it's supplies for the people -- coal, apples, meat, oil -- then they're welcome!"

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