KEY POINTS:
Miss Kazakhstan has gone in to bat for Borat.
She says the fictional character's movie, which pokes fun at her Central Asian nation, was "only a joke" and gave much-needed publicity to her county.
A contestant in the Miss Universe beauty pageant, Gauhkar Rakhmetalieva, said her Government would soon release its own film, which builds on the exposure of Kazakhstan but shows the nation's positive sides.
"In the end we have to understand that it was only a joke," Rakhmetalieva said.
