The Kazak foreign minister, Yerlan Idrisov, has said that talks on the sensitive issue of marking out the country's border with Uzbekistan will start today Thursday in Tashkent.

He told parliament it was a complicated process and would definitely take more than a year.

Last month, Kazakhstan protested to its neighbour, accusing it of erecting border signs without consultation.

The areas disputed between the two countries are densely populated, with fertile land.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service