A way for visual basic to comunicate with as3?

Hi,
Im trying to find away of getting flash to play happy with vb6.
This was easy enough when using as2. But when using as2, for a vb developer to change a variable in flash they would use somthing like _root.vartochange = "blar blar".
However in as3 there is no such thing as "_root". Ive research this alot and caunt find anyway for vb to comunicate with flash. Would turning the flash into an air app make things any easier does any one know? This is a standalone flash app Im developing and not for web.
Has anyone a solution to this?
Or is there some sort of bridge I could use between the two?


Thanks
Aidan