Turkmen president's 'magic' carpet

Turkmenistan has adopted the president's head as its official logo

Turkmen weavers have created what they say is the world's biggest carpet in honour of President Saparmurat Niyazov on the country's 10th anniversary of independence.

Turkmen state television showed pictures of weavers at work on the carpet, which weighs over a tonne and measures 300 sq metres (about 3,200 sq feet).

The carpet took eight months to complete

The carpet, woven by 40 people, features national symbols and President Niyazov's words: "The 21st century will be the Golden Age of the Turkmen."

A spokesman for the Guinness Book of Records in London told Reuters news agency that as soon as it had been certified, it would be entered in the book as the largest hand-made carpet in the world.

Personality cult

This latest creation is just one in a series of projects promoting the country and its leader.

The people of other nations will come to know who are and were the Turkmen

President Niyazov

Mr Niyazov, who likes to be known as "Turkmenbashi", Father of the Turkmen people, began creating a huge personality cult around himself even before the country's independence from the Soviet Union.

Images of him adorn public buildings around the capital, Ashgabat, his face appears on the local currency and his statue can be found in practically every town across the country.

'Prophet'

In May, state-run newspapers ran an article about him entitled: "The Word of the Prophet".

"A bright light from Central Asia will light the whole earth and it will be the light of the prophet Saparmurat," it said.

The carpet has become the centrepiece of independence day celebrations

Mr Niyazov also launched his own spiritual guide, or "Ruhnama" for the Turkmen people last week, ahead of Saturday's anniversary.

"Every Turkmen should read the book and be guided by it," Mr Niyazov told his advisory body, the People's Council.

"And the people of other nations will come to know who are and were the Turkmen," he added, to the sound of rapturous applause.

Sayings from the president's spiritual guide and his five-headed eagle standard have been used to decorate the carpet, which has been named "The 21st Century: Epoch of the Great Saparmurat Turkmenbashi".

The carpet is to be housed in the Rug Museum in Ashgabat.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.