EU promises visiting Kyrgyz president more aid money

Mar 1, 2011, 15:08 GMT

Brussels - Kyrgyzstan's caretaker president, Roza Otunbayeva, visited the European Union's headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday and left with a pledge for increased aid for her impoverished Central Asian country.

The head of the EU's executive, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said Kyrgyzstan could receive budget support even if that kind of aid is normally reserved for EU-membership hopefuls or countries neighbouring the bloc.

'I said to President Otunbayeva that we are ready to consider that possibility,' Barroso said in a press conference with the Kyrgyz leader.

However, the EU offer was conditional on Kyrgyzstan agreeing first to an economic reform plan with the International Monetary Fund, Barroso said.

'We appreciate, Mr Barroso, what you are doing for my country,' Otunbayeva said.

Any EU funds would come on top of the 118 million euros (163 million dollars) that the bloc has already pledged for the country's recovery after it was rocked last year by violent riots which led to the ouster of the country's former ruler, Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

That uprising has set Kyrgyzstan on the path towards a fully-functioning democracy, setting it apart from its neighbours in Central Asia - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan - which are seen as dictatorships or semi-dictatorships.

Parliamentary elections were held in November, while presidential ones are expected in October this year. Otunbayeva is barred from running in the contest.

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