Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday mooted an Asian Economic Community encompassing ASEAN, China, Japan, Korea and itself to integrate Asia and promote regional cooperation.

"This is an idea whose time is fast approaching and we must be prepared for it collectively," Manmohan Singh said inaugurating the third Indo-ASEAN Business Summit.

Driven by technological revolution and interconnected population, Singh said "this is visible in the proliferation of regional cooperation mechanisms across the globe, including in our region".

"Such a community would release enormous energy and constitute an `arc of advantage', across which there would be large scale movement of people, capital, ideas and creativity," he said.

A grouping like this would be roughly the size of European Union in terms of income and bigger than NAFTA in terms of trade, he said. It would account for half the world's population and hold forex reserves exceeding those of the EU and NAFTA put together.

"One cannot but be captivated at the vision of an integrated market, spanning the distance from the Himalayas to the Pacific Ocean, linked by efficient road, rail, air and shipping services," he added.

India had embarked upon projects to interconnect existing roads and rail links and was striving to increase flight services and destinations to provide multi-modal transportation linkages apart from optical fibre-supported communications, he said.