ALMATY Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev urged the Central Asian nation on Friday to unite around a pro-presidential party to stave off the social and economic threats that have racked its neighbors, Reuters said. Nazarbayev, 60, has run the vast resource-rich state since 1989, when he became local boss of the Communist Party. He enjoys wide powers and the support of a compliant legislature. He told a congress of the pro-presidential Otan Party in the commercial capital, Almaty, that he was not calling for the creation of a one-party state. But he said Kazakhstan needed a "ruling party" to bring discipline to the country of 15 million.

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