US senator against publicizing details of Kazakh military expansion in Iraq

Excerpt from report by privately-owned Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency

Astana, 7 August: The leader of the US Senate democratic majority, Harry Reid, thinks that the details of negotiations between Washington and Astana on the issue of possible expansion of Kazakhstan's participation in peaceful operations in Iraq and Afghanistan should not be publicized.

"The US secretary of defence visited (the Central Asian) region and Afghanistan in particular, and this issue was discussed at length. This is why negotiations with the leadership of Kazakhstan on this issue (Kazakhstan's peacekeeping mission) should be held in private format, not for public," he told a news briefing in Astana today, answering a question by the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency on how Kazakhstan reacted to a request by the USA on increasing Kazakh troops in Iraq.

[Passage omitted: on the presence of terror threat in Afghanistan; repeat of known details]

Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian 1237 gmt 7 Aug 08