It is not in our practice to force someone to leave, so Mr Zhakiyanov is still there

Serge Smessov French ambassador

Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, a former deputy prime minister of the ex-Soviet republic, is accused of illegally writing off a fine to a business enterprise while serving as a regional governor in Pavlodar, the Ekspress K newpaper said.

On Friday Mr Zhakiyanov fled to the French Embassy, saying he feared persecution by the Kazakh security forces who are seeking him on corruption charges. He has begun a hunger strike.

Opposition leaders have appealed to foreign states for support, saying they are under unprecedented pressure from President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The Kazakh Government, which describes Mr Zhakiyanov as a "primitive criminal", denies seeking to persecute the opposition and says it is merely fighting corruption.

Negotiations

The French ambassador, Serge Smessov, has refused to surrender Mr Zhakiyanov to the authorities although he is asking him to leave voluntarily.

Kazakhstan

Ruled by Nazarbayev since before the collapse of the USSR Presidential election in 1999 widely denounced as unfair Four independent newspapers and several regional TV stations recently shut down

The ambassador, whose embassy is located in the same building as the German and British embassies, said it was not in his embassy's "practice to force someone to leave".

Mr Zhakiyanov said he had been forced to seek the protection of foreign embassies.

"Until measures are taken to protect my interests from the arbitrariness of the national security committee, interior ministry and general prosecutor's office, I am forced to turn to a hunger strike and ask for protection from the embassies on whose territory I am now," he said.

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry has been continuing negotiations with French diplomats over the fate of Mr Zhakiyanov, who is accused of abuse of office while being the governor in Pavlodar.

His dramatic bid for asylum has been condemned by the European Union which says that the embassies of EU states should not be used "as political platforms".

Political tensions

Human rights activists have mounted a vigil outside the embassy building in support of Mr Zhakiyanov, who is a leader and founder member of Kazakhstan's Democratic Choice association.

President Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan with an iron grip since Soviet times

At the same time, pro-presidential youth groups have been picketing the embassy to press for Mr Zhakiyanov's surrender.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed concern about escalation of political tensions and reports of a Kazakh police attack on a member of parliament outside the embassy .

"Senator Zauresh Battalova said that she was subjected to police harassment when protesting against police actions taken against journalists reporting from the site of the French embassy," the OSCE said.

Opposition leaders told a news conference on Monday that the authorities had unleashed a "massive attack on freedom of speech, independent media and democratic parties".

Veteran politician Petr Svoik praised the French ambassador's "loyal and constructive approach" to Mr Zhakiyanov's situation and appealed to diplomats "not to yield to the unprecedented pressure".

The opposition suffered another blow last week when another former minister, Mukhtar Ablyazov, was arrested on corruption charges, and a TV station allegedly associated with him, Tan, was taken off the air.

Mr Ablyazov is also a leader of Democratic Choice, a new political movement composed largely of former state officials.

The US Embassy in Almaty, the former capital and still Kazakhstan's biggest city, said after the arrest that there appeared to be "an effort to intimidate political opposition leaders and the independent media".