KEY POINTS:
All the controversy generated by Borat's spoof movie could be an advantage for the former soviet republic of Kazakhstan, the country's President said during a visit to London today.
Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former communist who rules the vast Central Asian republic, dismissed the film as a joke by
someone who has never been to the real place called Kazakhstan, his country.
But he added: "There is a positive side to this. There is a saying that any publicity is good publicity. You will want to come to Kazakhstan and learn more for yourselves and I invite you to do so."
The Kazakh leader lamented how little is known in the west about his homeland, which is the tenth largest country in the world, and has one of the fastest growing economies.
Income per head is 15 times what it was when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.
The World Bank has singled Kazkhastan out as one of the 20 most interesting countries for foreign investors, and it is the first - so far the only - nuclear power in the world to renounce nuclear weapons and dismantle its nuclear arsenal.
Its ruler has also been an important ally of the US and Great Britain in Iraq.
But Mr Nazarbayev complained that "people who do not understand geography" mix up Kazakhstan with Kyrgyzstan or Turkmenistan, or thought it was part of Russia.
Others confuse it with the racist, sexist, homophobic, violent and fictitious Kazkahstan invented as a vehicle for satire by Sacha Baron Cohen.
In his film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan", Cohen masqueraded as a journalist employed by the Kazakh government to make a documentary on the USA.
Standing alongside Tony Blair at a Downing Street press conference, President Nazarbayev said: "Maybe the journalist himself, Mr Borat Sagdiyev, is here representing Kazakhstan.
I would very much like to speak to him if he is."
He added: "This film was created by a comedian, so let's laugh at it. That's my attitude.
"It's well known that Mr Sacha Baron Cohen has never been to Kazakhstan. The film wasn't made in Kazakhstan; it was made in impoverished parts of Romania.
"The role of Kazakhs there is played by impoverished gypsies from that part of the world. The role of a drunken Kazakh was played by an American student, I believe. All of them I think are now taking him to court."
Two Romanian villagers and two US students who appeared in the film have threatened to sue.
The film has been banned in Russia.
President Nazarbayev is spending today visiting the London stock exchange, where four Kazakh companies are listed.
One, a copper company, has reached the FTSE 100.
He emphasised that his country is a major potential source of energy for Europe, as well as an ally in the Iraq conflict.
The country shares a common border with Iran, and Mr Nazarbayev has appealed to the Iranians not to develop nuclear weapons.
When it left the USSR, Kazakhstan had the world's fourth largest nuclear arsenal but decided to "free itself" of nuclear arms, and did so without any threat to its security.
- INDEPENDENT
