Borat may be good for Kazakhs, says leader

Controversy generated by Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy film about a supposed homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic Kazakh reporter could benefit the former Soviet republic, the country's President said .

Nursultan Nazarbayev, who met Tony Blair at Downing Street yesterday,dismissed Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan as a joke by someone who had never been to his country. But he added that "any publicity is good publicity" and suggested that people might now like to visit Kazakhstan and find out the truth for themselves.

He lamented how little was known in the West about his homeland, which has one of the world's fastest growing economies and was singled out by the World Bank as one of the 20 most interesting countries for foreign investors. It is the only nuclear power to have renounced nuclear weapons and dismantled its arsenal.