26 February 2004	Thursday	05 Muharram 1425

ASTANA, Feb 25: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pledged to help Kazakhstan ensure security in the oil-rich Caspian Sea on Wednesday, an area of acute interest for Washington as it seeks to diversify its crude oil supplies.

Mr Rumsfeld flew into Kazakhstan, an ex-Soviet republic in Central Asia likely to become a major oil player in the next decade, as part of a trip to the region aimed at bolstering military ties and efforts to cut drugs trafficking.

"We have been cooperating with exercises and different types of equipment (in the Caspian)," Mr Rumsfeld told a news conference after talks with Kazakh officials in the capital Astana.

A senior US defence official told reporters travelling with Mr Rumsfeld that Washington was anxious to help Caspian security, possibly by supplying boats and radars.

"They (Kazakhstan) are extremely interested in developing security within Kazakhstan and the Caspian, especially for oil," said the official, who asked not to be identified. Kazakhstan decided last year to set up its own navy and is to take delivery of its first battleships in coming months.

The states around the Caspian - Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia - have still not agreed on its exact delineation following the break-up of the Soviet Union, potentially causing strife over the mineral wealth below.

As Mr Rumsfeld arrived in Astana, the Kazakh government signed an agreement with a consortium of foreign oil firms, including US-based ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, on oil production in the Caspian.

The companies have pushed back the start of production at the offshore Kashagan site, one of the biggest crude oil discoveries in the past 30 years, by at least three years due to technical difficulties and agreed to pay an undisclosed fine.

Washington has been seeking to diversify oil production away from the Middle East and is an increasingly important player in ex-Soviet Central Asia, where it is encouraging Western oil firms to operate and pushing for pipelines that avoid Russia.

"It is important to this country and to this area of the world that security be assured (in the Caspian)," Mr Rumsfeld said. On Tuesday he reiterated that the Pentagon had no intention of establishing permanent military bases in Central Asia as part of a realignment of US forces around the world. -Reuters