We show that the neutron star minimum period of uniform rotation is determi
ned, for causal equations of state, by the maximum value of the relativisti
c (compactness) parameter 2GM/Rc(2), allowed by causality for static neutro
n stars, 0.7081, and by the largest measured mass of a neutron star. The re
lation between these three quantities, resulting from the extrapolation of
the empirical formulae of Lasota et al. (1996), yields the minimum period o
f 0.288 ms, only 2% higher than an absolute lower bound obtained in extensi
ve exact numerical calculations of Koranda et al. (1997).