Alliot-Marie held talks with her Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Altynbayev and was received by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the discussions focusing mainly on the prospects for improving military cooperation between their two countries.

On June 28 she was in Tashkent for talks with Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov for talks focused on the fight against terrorism and the reconstruction of neighbouring Afghanistan.

The latest visit highlights France's determination to establish a security presence in the region.

"Much of the world's stability depends on what happens in Central Asia," she said on her arrival here, citing the rise in Islamist militancy and terrorism.

Paris, along with other Western capitals, is also deeply concerned at the transit through the region of large quantities of drugs, notably heroin, grown in Afghanistan for markets in the West.

France stationed several Mirage fighters at the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan from March to October last year, and has established a logistical base for its airforce in Tajikistan for operations in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Alliot-Marie also visited Tajikistan last December to sign a military cooperation agreement, the first by that country with any Western country.

Last month French President Jacques Chirac received Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev at the Elysee, and several junior French ministers have visited the region in recent months.

WAR.WIRE