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BRUSSELS - East-West tensions will surface at a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) today as ex-Soviet Kazakhstan stakes a claim to its 2009 chair and Moscow seeks to limit the body's powers.
Washington and some European states argue that the oil-rich Central
Asian republic, which has never had an election deemed fair by Western observers, falls short of the standards of the 56-state human rights and democracy watchdog.
Yet they are loath to rebuff a strategically important energy producer that appears keener to reform than many of its neighbours, and want to find a compromise at the December 4-5 meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels.
"They are beginning to emerge as a real force for progress in a very difficult region ... We certainly appreciate Kazakhstan's interest and we are going to try to find a way ahead," said US Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried.
Washington has said publicly it could agree to Kazakhstan taking the chair in 2011 and Fried cited a possible compromise under which OSCE nations could agree now on the three countries to hold the chairmanship through 2009-2011.
Even if that meant Kazakhstan waiting two years longer than it wants, such a deal would give it the certainty now of a spot in the chair. So far it has declined the offer and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has scheduled an official visit to Belgium during the talks to lend weight to the lobbying.
Kazakhstan wants to depict itself as a modern nation of well-educated professionals and has had to laugh off the success of the comedy film "Borat", a box office hit in Europe and the United States about a misogynistic, racist Kazakh journalist.
The talks will also highlight deeper conflict between Russia and the West over the role of the Vienna-based OSCE, created in 1975 as a forum for East-West cooperation in the Cold War.
A Russian-led bloc complains that the OSCE, which functions on the basis of consensus, is being turned into a two-tier organisation with the United States and European Union countries trying to teach the former Soviet states lessons.
Moscow is irked by the body's election monitoring and human rights activism in a zone it sees as its "near abroad".
The OSCE played a part in exposing a rigged Ukrainian presidential election two years ago that led to a popular uprising for democracy, and has been critical of Russian parliamentary and presidential elections in recent years.
Moscow has proposed changes to the way that the OSCE's election-monitoring arm carries out its functions, but Fried gave notice that the United States would resist any move that curtailed its independence.
"Its findings are often very embarrassing for governments when it calls an election as it sees it," said Fried. "We will resist any watering down of its legitimate prerogatives. There is no need to fix what is not broken."
- REUTERS