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Israeli President Shimon Peres (L) attends a meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev (R) in Astana on June 30, 2009. Peres is on a landmark visit to several countries of the former Soviet Union.
Photo: Stanislav Fillipov in Astana, AFP Copyright 2009
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ASTANA (AFP)---President Shimon Peres was in Kazakhstan on Tuesday in the first visit by an Israeli head of state to the majority Muslim country, following a similar trip to overwhelmingly Shiite Azerbaijan.
Peres held talks with the Central Asian state's strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev on trade, cultural and humanitarian issues, the Kazakh presidency said in a statement.
"Kazakhstan sees Israel as an important partner in the Middle East region with which there is a diverse cooperation," it quoted Nazarbayev as saying.
The two sides also vowed to expand ties in trade, which according to the Kazakh presidency in 2008 increased two-and-a-half times to a total volume of more than 2.4 billion dollars.
Peres had on Monday wrapped up a visit to Azerbaijan -- also the first by an Israeli president -- which aroused intense curiosity due to the country's border with Iran, which refuses to recognise the Jewish state.
Israel maintains tight economic and military ties with Kazakhstan after Astana asked the Jewish state to help it modernise its military and produce weapons as it seeks to upgrade its armed forces.
However Kazakh security forces in April arrested a Deputy Defence Minister in connection with irregularities surrounding a 2006 deal for Israel to supply modern artillery designs to the Kazakh military.