Turkmenistan has offered to host an international conference on disarmament in Central Asia and the Caspian basin under UN auspices in its capital, Ashgabat.

Addressing the 64th Session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said his country was ready to organize such a conference in the first half of 2010.

«We are convinced that the less weaponry there is in the world, the more stable its development will be, and the more trust and understanding there will be between countries and nations,» he said.

Central Asia has witnessed increasing militarization in the past decade, partly due to U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.

In recent months, Washington agreed an extension to its lease of an airbase in Kyrgyzstan, while Russia also struck deals for further bases in the region, as well as for a multinational rapid reaction force and a joint air-defense network.

The United States is ready to assist Turkmenistan with its efforts to diversify energy supplies on global markets, Turkmen television cited the U.S. secretary of state as saying.

Turkmen TV said Hillary Clinton had met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov with Washington stating their willingness to expand cooperation with Turkmenistan in a wide range of areas, including politics and energy supplies.

Berdymukhamedov said his energy-rich country is seeking to diversify its supplies to global markets and that Turkmenistan was ready to cooperate with U.S. companies in the development of oil-and-gas fields in the Caspian Sea.

At present, Turkmenistan has the option of supplying its energy resources directly to Russia and Iran, and will soon finish construction of a natural gas pipeline connecting the country with China.

Washington has repeatedly asked Turkmenistan to join the Nabucco gas pipeline project as a supplier.

The project, estimated at 7.9 billion euros (USD 11.5 billion), is designed to pump Central Asian gas to Austria and Germany via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, bypassing Russia.

In 2008, Turkmenistan exported over 47 billion cubic meters of natural gas out of the total of 70.5 billion cubic meters produced by the Central Asian republic.

Turkmenistan's president is using the 64th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York to promote international security for global energy supplies.

Turkmenistan.ru reported Thursday that President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov urged the assembly to create a working group under U.N. auspices to draw up a legally binding document to guarantee the reliability and stability of energy supplies in the global market.

Berdymukhammedov met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon , who congratulated him on the success of a recent international conference on energy, which had been organized on Turkmenistan's initiative in December 2008. Berdymukhammedov commented, «Much work should be done to prepare a corresponding international convention.»

Turkmenistan has been involved in a dispute with Russia over its natural gas supplies since April. When on April 9 Gazprom unilaterally diminished imports of Turkmen gas, an explosion occurred on the main Russian-Turkmen import pipeline and the flow has yet to be restored.

Further broadening Turkmenistan's export options, Berdymukhammedov also met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with energy security being the focus of their discussions.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is calling for a halt to the militarization of Central Asia.

«We are convinced that the less weaponry there is in the world, the more stable its development will be, and the more trust and understanding there will be between countries and nations,» Berdymukhamedov said during UN General Assembly in New York, according to a report distributed by the RIA Novosti news agency.

Berdymukhamedov added Ashgabat is ready to host a regional disarmament conference early next year. American-led operations in Afghanistan and the creation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s rapid reaction group, ACORN, have both contributed to a build-up of military facilities and weaponry in the region, the report added.

Iran will increase Turkmen gas imports by up to 40 percent this winter, a top energy official says.

Azizollah Ramezani, director general of the National Iranian Oil Company, said the completion of 30-km import pipeline would allow Iran to buy more Turkmen gas than the 6 billion cubic meters previously anticipated.

«New estimates show that gas imports from our northern neighbor [Turkmenistan] could jump by 40 percent by winter this year,» Iranian media outlets quoted Ramezani as saying on September 23.

The U.S. government expressed its desire to see Turkmenistan emerge as a leader in terms of energy security and energy supply, officials say.

Robert Blake, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the South and Central Asia bureau, briefed reporters on a bilateral meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

«On the energy front, the secretary said that we want to see Turkmenistan really be a leader in terms of energy security and energy supply,» said Blake.

He added that Turkmenistan had an «important role to play» in the development of the USD 10.3 billion Nabucco pipeline for Europe.

A January gas row between Kiev and Moscow exposed gaps in the regional energy transport sector. Europe aims to diversify its gas transport options through Nabucco.

Nabucco is designed to have the capacity to move 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas each year to European customers from Caspian and Middle Eastern suppliers. The pipeline would run from the Caspian region through Turkey to Austria along a route through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

Despite political backing for the project, it lacks firm commitments from potential gas suppliers.

Reinhard Mitschek, managing director of the Nabucco international consortium, however, said supply options were diverse.

«We see Azerbaijan, Iraq and Turkmenistan as the first suppliers,» he told an Azeri press service. «Other options will also be considered in the future.»

In the better-late-than-never department: Turkmenistan’s main export pipeline to Russia is fully operational after more than a five-month repair ordeal that featured acrimonious verbal exchanges between Ashgabat and Moscow.

The pipeline, known as CAC-4, exploded in April bringing Turkmen gas exports to Russia to halt. Now, only «technical discussions» between Ashgabat and the Kremlin-controlled conglomerate Gazprom preclude the immediate resumption of exports, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov announced.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on September 18 the Turkmen president described Russia as Turkmenistan’s «historic, strategic partner.» He went on to say that the two states would «strengthen and develop our relations.»

A date for the talks on the resumption of exports has yet to be fixed. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s aide, Sergei Prikhodko, said on September 14 that talks might happen «over the coming weeks.»

Uzbekistan has banned meat and diary imports from Turkmenistan to guard against the spread of a «dangerous epidemiological situation» in the Turkmen province of Dashoguz.

According to a report distributed by the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti, an unidentified Uzbek official in Khorezm Province identified the threat as «hemorrhagic fever.»

«People get infected and die because of untimely and insufficient preventive measures,» the official said on September 22 without elaborating. The most common form of hemorrhagic fever in Central Asia is the tick-borne Congo-Crimean variety. Numerous outbreaks of the often deadly infection have been reported across the region this summer.

Turkmenistan and China have developed a five point proposal to strengthen bilateral cooperation.

Energy and security concerns were at the heart of the plan discussed by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and Chinese President Hu Jintao in New York on September 21.

Bilateral cooperation plans are being built around the Turkmen-Chinese energy export pipeline. «China stands ready to work with Turkmenistan to ensure the commission and completion of the project according to schedule,» the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

The sides pledged to «formulate long-term cooperation programs» for industries other than oil and gas, as well as promote cultural and education exchanges, the Xinhua report added.

Interest in Turkmenistan's natural resources should not mute international criticism of Ashgabat's repressive domestic policies, the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said in a recent statement.

Despite President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov's «all-out charm offensive,» Ashgabat maintains complete control over mass media, the watchdog group said in a statement issued September 16.

«One should not pin any hopes on his government's change in tone. The Turkmen regime is hoping to woo the international community with a new approach, but we urge its potential partners to look at the realities of a country that is ranked 171st out of 173 countries in our press freedom index,» the statement said.

A fracas between Chinese and Turkmen workers at an energy company in eastern Turkmenistan has left several people injured and hundreds detained, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports.

The workers are employed by a Chinese energy company building a natural-gas pipeline in the eastern Samandepe and Yoloten regions.

About 200 Turkmen workers were reportedly detained and 15 Chinese workers were hospitalized after the 12 September clashes.

Turkmen workers had complained of discrimination - with Chinese allegedly getting higher wages for the same work - and poor working conditions.

The Turkmen Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Ashgabat did not comment on the reports.

The USD7.3 billion Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline project began in 2007 and will take natural gas from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and on to China.

The Turkmen State Agency for Control and Development of Hydrocarbon Resources and Russia’s Itera signed an agreement on the 21st bloc in the Turkmen Caspian sector on Sunday, in the attendance of Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.

Turkmenistan will resume natural gas supplies to Russian energy giant Gazprom, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said after talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday.

The problem with Turkmen gas deliveries began in early April, when a blast and ensuing fire caused Turkmengaz, the country's state-run gas company, to suspend supplies to Russia.

Turkmenistan earlier accused Russia of failing to warn Ashgabat that it was reducing gas imports, resulting in a buildup of pipeline pressure that caused the blast while experts attributed the significant reduction in Turkmen gas imported by Gazprom to a drop in demand from European consumers amid the global economic crisis.

Berdymukhammedov said that all the issues related to the resumption of Turkmen gas supplies to Russia had been resolved, adding that Gazprom would buy natural gas from Turkmenistan according to a specific formula as the Russian energy giant considered the current gas price too high in the current conditions.

Russia is one of the largest importers of Turkmen gas. In 2008, Turkmenistan exported over 47 billion cubic meters of natural gas out of the total of 70.5 billion cubic meters produced in the Central Asian republic.

Meanwhile, Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko said that Gazprom's contacts with Turkmen companies for the supply of Turkmen gas to Russia would be continued in coming weeks.

«Cooperation with Turkmenistan in the gas sphere has never stopped, and the technical problems linked with the considerable wear of the pipeline network have actually been resolved,» Prikhodko said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived on Sunday on a working visit to Turkmenistan to discuss energy issues with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.

«The meeting will be focused on cooperation in fuel and energy sector, where we have developed a serious potential,» Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko said on the eve of the visit.

Both presidents will later be joined by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to attend the opening of the final stage of the 2009 - Silk Road rally.

The Silk Road rally from Russia to Turkmenistan via Kazakhstan officially received the prestigious status of a Dakar series rally in March and is held this year between September 5 and 13.

The presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan said they would not discuss Caspian matters without Iran and voiced hope for the soonest Caspian summit in Baku.

“I believe that all Caspian states must discuss Caspian matters, fulfill the proposals made at the Tehran summit and hold the next summit in Baku,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the Aktau forum on Friday.

He described the proposed Baku summit as ‘a productive idea’ and said it was necessary to agree on fundamental parameters.

“The four presidents will not discuss Caspian matters today,” Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said. “We discussed them at the Tehran summit and decided to meet again in Baku. I hope we will gather together with Iran and ponder pressing problems soon,” he said.

The Turkmen and Azerbaijani leaders supported that position. “It would be good to discuss Caspian issues between five states, including Iran. We have many other regional problems to discuss today,” Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow said.

“The implementation of the Tehran summit decisions will lead to the successful resolution of problems in the Caspian Sea delimitation in the spirit of friendship and neighborliness,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

The Aktau meeting caused a negative reaction of Iran, which believed that the sides would focus on Caspian issues. “The meeting disagrees with the earlier decision to discuss and resolve any Caspian matters with the participation of five Caspian states. The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the quadripartite meeting contradicts its interests,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motaki said.

Nazarbayev welcomed three presidents to Aktau and said that Kazakhstan was trading with Baku, Makhachkala and Turkmenbashi through that seaport.

The informal summit has no agenda, he said, adding that the presidents could discuss any bilateral and multilateral issues and take rest on the Caspian coast.

Medvedev said he was glad to visit the Caspian city he had never been before and agreed that they had plenty of matters to discuss.

Aliyev said it was possible to discuss joint economic projects.

Kazakhstan is a sincere friend of Russia and a good neighbor of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, Nazarbayev said. “In fact, we have no big problems. Everything can be resolved by consensus,” he said.

Turkmenistan, a reclusive Central Asian state viewed by the West as a potential source of natural gas, will free 1,284 prisoners including 21 foreigners in a traditional amnesty, state television reported on Thursday.

The amnesty, expected in mid-September, is linked to the Muslim holiday of Laylat al-Qadr, marked towards the end of Ramadan, state television said.

«Yet another act of pardoning is a tribute to the humane traditions of our ancestors,» it said.

Rights groups say Turkmenistan's undisclosed prison population includes political prisoners locked up during the 21-year rule of autocratic leader Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in 2006.

His successor Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has sought to promote a more liberal image, but human rights campaigners say his reforms have been cosmetic.

Turkmenistan, whose rich natural gas resources could become an alternative source for supplies to Europe, is now actively courted by Western governments.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suggested on Monday that the gas-rich Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan join a gas cartel.

«We are creating a gas OPEC and are proposing that you study the issue of joining this organization,» Chavez told his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, before the start of a Venezuela-Turkmenistan summit.

Chavez, who is on a visit to Turkmenistan, said that the gas cartel would include Russia, Iran and Venezuela.

The United States and some other Western countries vehemently oppose the idea of a gas cartel, fearing that it would attempt to dictate global gas prices in a similar way to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The Turkmen president remarked that according to expert estimates Turkmenistan ranked fourth in the world in terms of natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran and Qatar, with the South Eleten gas field alone boasting 14 trillion cubic meters of gas.

Berdymukhammedov said the Venezuelan president's visit was a historic milestone in developing and strengthening bilateral relations.

In turn, Chavez said that his visit marked the start of a new history. «We want Venezuela and Turkmenistan to come closer and also bring closer to each other the Caribbean basin, South America and Central Asia - the ancient civilization that was hidden during the existence of the Soviet Union.»

NATO special representative for Central Asia and Caucasus Robert Simmons has downplayed the controversy over Turkmenistan's plan to establish a naval base on its Caspian coast, saying it's natural for littoral states to boost border security to protect against an increasingly active transit route for illegal activities.

Turkmen President Berdymukhammedov recently declared the plans for the base and his intention to buy missile-equipped military ships against a backdrop of continuing disputes with Azerbaijan over several offshore oil and gas fields.

In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, Simmons noted that Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are both members of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

Simmons said one of the principles of this partnership is countries should solve their disputes by peaceful means.

Regarding the German AWACS surveillance planes bound for Afghanistan that were reportedly denied permission for overflight by Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, Simmons said NATO is continuing discussions with both countries.

Simmons also emphasized that the purpose of those AWACS planes flying to Afghanistan will not be surveillance but air-traffic control if they are used.

Simmons said Turkmenistan currently permits NATO aircraft to transit its airspace, particularly cargo planes for nonlethal equipment.

According to Simmons, there is no surface transportation through Turkmenistan currently since its government has not yet given permission for use of its roads and railways.

Simmons said there are rights to land in emergency cases such as fueling operations.

NATO official says all of their work with Turkmenistan fully respects the neutrality of the country.

Simmons says cooperation over Afghanistan is not incompatible with Turkmenistan's neutral status.

Ten officers from the State National Service Turkmenistan Airlines and the transport police took part in a «train the trainer» course on x-ray checkpoint security that ended in Ashgabat.

Organized by the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat in co-operation with the Foreign Ministry and Turkmenistan Airlines, the course comprised one week of x-ray interpretation and security training and a second week on teaching future trainees and adapting training materials for local use.

«The training course was designed to follow the guidelines set down by internationally recognized bodies. The course provides knowledge and skills to allow instructors to produce and deliver the highest quality instruction to security personnel using the latest information, techniques and materials,» said Stewart Hanson, a UK security instructor who conducted the course.

The course focused on best practices for detecting drugs, small arms and light weapons and other prohibited items, as well as teaching methodologies, including using audio-visual presentation, practical exercises, training aids and computer-based training.

A computer classroom was set up with the Centre's support at the Aviation Training School for the personnel of Turkmenistan Airlines, and airport security personnel will continue to have use of it after the project is completed.

A study trip to an airport in one of the OSCE participating States will be organized as a follow-up to the course.

A domestic violence hotline initiated and supported by the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat opened officially in Turkmenistan today.

The new hotline will be run by the non-governmental organization Keik Okara and will be operational six days per week, 11 hours per day. The number will be publicized through information flyers.

«The hotline will assist victims of domestic violence, and will further help to raise awareness about the importance of preventing and combating domestic violence,» said Ambassador Arsim Zekolli, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat.

Within the framework of this OSCE-supported project, Keik Okara will also provide free legal consultations and psychological assistance to victims of domestic violence and will organize 15 awareness-raising seminars on domestic violence for the general public.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat, William Stevens, says Turkmenistan does not recognize the Bishkek-based American University in Central Asia (AUCA) as an institution of higher learning.

RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service says Stevens also confirmed that Turkmen students studying at AUCA but now in Turkmenistan for summer vacation have been denied official permission to leave Turkmenistan to return to the school.

An American Councils for International Education representative in Ashgabat says the government has taken the decision to block the students because AUCA is a commercial institution not accredited in Turkmenistan.

The U.S. State Department annually provides full scholarships to 10 to 15 students in Turkmenistan for a four-year course of study at AUCA.

Turkmenistan will find that opening a military base on the Caspian Sea is easier said than done, Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, said on Monday.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov announced on Sunday at the National Security Council session that Turkmenistan will in the immediate future open a naval base on the Caspian Sea to secure the country's maritime border.

''I believe it will be more difficult to implement this decision than to announce it, since Turkmenistan is not a country with considerable military potential, which of course could be purchased with revenue from gas sales, but still it will not be easy to do,'' he said.

He added that the announcement could also have been made in order to show Turkmenistan's determination to defend its interests against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations on the legal status of the Caspian Sea between the five littoral states - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.

''The issue of the Caspian Sea delimitation is still undecided... with each country being afraid that the talks will not end in its favor, and Turkmenistan is particularly afraid of this as it views Kazakhstan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia with suspicion,'' Lukyanov said, adding that the plan to open the naval base could be ''a symbolic move to show that Turkmenistan will be protecting its interests on the Caspian Sea.''

The status of the oil- and gas-rich inland sea has been a source of disagreement between Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The countries have yet to agree on how to divide the seabed. The Caspian's oil and gas reserves, believed to be the world's third largest, have also been a source of rivalry between Russia, Iran and the West.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are refusing to grant German surveillance planes destined for Afghanistan over-flight rights.

A spokesman for the German Ministry of Defense, Thomas Raabe, said the move was ''an annoyance.'' The AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) surveillance planes sat in Konya, Turkey, during July before returning to their base in Germany earlier this month, Raabe was widely quoted as saying on August 26.

''NATO is negotiating [with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan],'' Raabe added. But according to the German magazine Der Spiegel, frustrated NATO officials are now seeking to station the planes in the Middle East, where a flight path to Afghanistan would avoid Turkmen and Azeri territory.

Berdymukhamedov said in February following a meeting in Tashkent with his Uzbek counterpart, Islam Karimov, that Turkmenistan would open its skies to NATO planes.