MINSK The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has overstepped its mandate as a diplomatic observer in Belarus and become a "player" in the country's internal politics, AFP quoted a senior government minister as saying late Friday.

Belarus Foreign Minister Mikhail Kvostov said diplomats accredited in Minsk as part of the OSCE's advisory and monitoring group had breached international guidelines by getting too close to antigovernment dissidents.

Speaking on state-run television, Khvostov picked out for special criticism Hans Georg Wiek, the head of the OSCE mission, which he claimed was financing opposition forces in Belarus.

"I have today received information that concerns me ... relating to the fact that the activities of the OSCE group and its leader Wiek have probably overstepped the role laid out in the memorandum on cooperation between the OSCE and Belarus," Khvostov said.

The foreign minister added that the OSCE had "already turned itself into an independent political player in the field of Belarus politics."

He added that "some foreign embassies and the OSCE group are trying to finance the activities of government opponents," adding that Wiek had undertaken the task of recruiting 14,000 people to observe September's presidential elections.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, sometimes dubbed the "Last Dictator in Europe," has repeatedly been criticized by international organizations for his strong-arm tactics in dealing with dissent.

The Belarus leader was elected for a five-year period in 1994 but a disputed 1996 referendum allowed him to stay on an extra two years.

Lukashenko has repeatedly accused the West of recruiting antigovernment spies under cover of legitimate diplomacy, and while verbal attacks on foreign diplomats for allegedly funding the Belarus opposition have become a staple of his speeches.

Lukashenko used a state-of-the-nation address last month to dismiss out of hand a recommendation by the OSCE that Belarus' Parliament should be given wider powers.

He has been widely criticized by international monitors for allegedly violating human rights and winning last year's parliamentary elections by downright fraud.