US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will next week refrain from pressing Central Asian governments for speedy democratic change out of fear of alienating military allies in an unstable but oil-rich region.
Rice will make her first trip as the top US diplomat to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, where pro-democracy rhetoric sends shivers through the hard-line governments after ousters in recent years of autocrats in other ex-Soviet states.
Washington vowed this year to make democracy-building central to bilateral relations, but if it presses too hard in Central Asia it risks losing influence to Russia and China, which make no such demands, according to political analysts.
At stake is sway over a region that is a narcotics crossroads, a vital launching pad for the US campaign against the Taleban in Afghanistan, and home to some of the world's largest oil finds in recent decades.
The State Department's top diplomat for the region, Daniel Fried, defended Rice's planned caution saying the United States was realistic about how quickly it could prompt change and has decided not to criticise every anti-democratic move it sees.
The governments have also told the United States to "lay off" prodding them on democracy, he said.
"The art of diplomacy and foreign policymaking is taking your principles, sticking to them, but applying them in the real world in ways that make sense," he told reporters in a preview of a trip that will also include Afghanistan, and possibly France and Britain.
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