ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Monday his central Asian state was ready to help the United States battle terrorism following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. (Read photo caption below)
``Kazakhstan is ready to support an action against terrorism with all the means it has at its disposal,'' Nazarbayev told a news conference in Astana, capital of the sprawling Muslim country.
Asked whether support would include use of air fields, military bases and airspace Nazarbayev said firmly ``these means include everything you have just enumerated.''
He also said he was consulting other Central Asian leaders on how to fight terror. The country's southern border is only 200 miles from Afghanistan, base of the militant Osama bin Laden, whom Washington holds responsible for the attacks.
_____________________________________________________________________PHOTO CAPTION:
Pope John Paul II, right, talks with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the presidential palace in Astana, Sunday Sept. 23, 2001. (AP Photo/Paolo Cocco/pool)
- Sep 23 12:04 PM ET