The Communist Party of India-Marxist's goal of a socialist state and a classless society was not immediately achievable, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu admitted on Sunday and said that the priority should be to capture power at the Centre as a step towards this end.

"We Marxists want to bring about a radical change since our goal is to achieve socialism to usher in a classless, oppression-free society. But it is not possible to achieve that end being in power in only three states," the nonagenarian former Chief Minister said at a CPI-M rally at the Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata.

Referring to the Left Front's return to power for the seventh consecutive time in the state, Basu said suggestions were made at that time that the CPI-M should work to bring about socialism.

"Socialism is CPI-M's ultimate goal, but that is a far cry being in a capitalist system in India," Basu said, calling for capturing power in Delhi to achieve that end.

Marxists were making all efforts to win people's confidence in achieving that goal, he said. Basu said that West Bengal's first industrial policy, formulated during his chief ministership, had clearly stated that the state would like to see that there was no problem in dealing with foreign investment while inviting investors for industries.

"I made it clear in my statement in the state assembly at that time that it will have to be ensured that such foreign investment is utilised for setting up big, medium and small

industrial units for the benefit of the people of the state and not for only the profit of the investors," he said.

Fully supporting Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's move for industrialisation, Basu said West Bengal topped the list in agricultural production and based on its success, it was a determined move by the state government to build up industries.