Rice cultivating ties in Kazakhstan visit

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Democracy and human rights are likely to take a back seat as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeks to improve ties with Kazakhstan, an energy-rich former Soviet republic whose importance has been emphasized by Russia's invasion of Georgia.

Rice will stress Kazakhstan's potential as an alternative energy supplier to Europe when she pays court Sunday to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country's autocratic ruler. The trip is intended to signal U.S. rejection of Moscow's claim to a sphere of influence in the region.

The secretary arrived Saturday in New Delhi, India, and will fly to Kazakhstan later during the weekend.

Nazarbayev has maintained a military alliance and close relations with Russia but has kept a door open to the West and looked to develop new export routes to Europe for Kazakhstan's vast energy resources.

That balancing act has been in doubt since Russia's invasion of Georgia in August, which threatened to close off the corridor for pipelines around Russia.

Since Russian forces pushed close to Georgia's capital before pulling back, the Bush administration has moved quickly to signal its commitment to countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Early last month, Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, another important energy exporter in the region.

The administration does not want to be seen as the one "that lost Eurasia and the Caspian region," said Ariel Cohen, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.

The United States also has sought to develop military ties with Kazakhstan as a regional power close to its operations in Afghanistan. Although its membership in a Russian-led Eurasian security bloc precludes Kazakh membership in NATO, the Central Asian country retains close contact with and regularly conducts joint military exercises with the Western alliance.

Despite the interest in cultivating relations with Nazarbayev, the State Department says Rice will bring up democracy and human rights issues during the visit. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer, who focuses on those issues, was dispatched to Kazakhstan ahead of Rice.