Pope begins Central Asia visit

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Pope John Paul II has begun a visit to troubled Central Asia and won praise from the leader of Kazakhstan for "protecting the world from Islamophobia."

President Nursultan Nazarbayev thanked the pope for going ahead with the visit despite the "troubled situation in the world" and for stressing that religion should not be blamed for the attacks.

The pope, looking frail at 81, said on arrival Saturday that all controversies between nations must be resolved by negotiations and dialogue -- not force of arms.

Authorities in the former Soviet republics that lie between Russia and Afghanistan have expressed concerns about militant Islam.

Nazarbayev predicted last year that Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban rulers and Osama bin Laden, now the prime suspect in the U.S. terrorist attacks, would target Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region in the coming years.

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On Saturday, he thanked the pope for making the trip and added: "The tragedy that happened in the United States presents a threat of division and confrontation between civilizations and religions."

Thousands of riot police and security agents lined the main streets of Astana, with agents marking the route of the pope's motorcade.

Vatican denies assurance

The Vatican denied reports that it had asked for or received assurances from Washington that U.S. forces would hold off in an attack during John Paul's six-day stay in Kazakhstan and Armenia.

Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters aboard the plane that the Vatican had taken no special security precautions for the trip and that there had been "no direct or indirect" threats against the pope.

"I greet the Islamic leaders and faithful, who boast a long religious tradition in this region," the pope said. Kazakstan's top Islamic leader, the grand mufti, was among the dignitaries.

Roman Catholics make up just 2 to 3 percent of the population of 15 million in Kazakhstan, a country sometimes referred to as being at the point where Europe meets Asia and Islam meets Christianity.

The majority religions are Islam and Russian Orthodox Christianity.

Soviet repression

The pope's first stop on his four-day visit was a memorial to the victims of Soviet repression, where he laid a wreath and prayed for five minutes, leaning on his cane.

The memorial honors millions of people who were exiled to the harsh Kazakh steppes and imprisoned in Soviet-era labor camps.

Kazakhstan has not ruled out any form of cooperation with the United States in the war against terrorism, the foreign minister said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press.

"We are not for the forceful means of settling any conflict," Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov said.

"But terrorism is a new threat, it's a specific threat, therefore we believe that any possible form of action can be taken and should be taken in order to eliminate the threat."

Security bodies

Idrisov's comments reflected what appeared to be a growing gap between Central Asian nation's readiness to provide assistance to the U.S.-led anti-terrorism effort and Russia's qualms about launching any such operations from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

Russia has long considered the countries its own sphere of influence and has made important efforts to tie them into collective security bodies since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Unlike Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan does not share a border with Afghanistan, where bin Laden is believed to be based.