Ousted Kyrgyz leader speaks out

Mr Akayev fled to Russia in March last year

Former Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev has said the country's political and economic situation has deteriorated since he was ousted last year.

Speaking from exile in Russia, he said none of the promises made by organisers of the uprising which forced him from power had been fulfilled.

The popular protests in March 2005 were triggered by allegations of official corruption and disputed elections.

But since then, Kyrgyzstan has suffered instability and occasional violence.

"In several areas of society there has been a clear regression. Unfavourable socio-economic conditions have been aggravated by the high-ranking leadership, as well as by aggressive criminal efforts to take control of the bodies of power," Mr Akayev said, in comments reported on Kyrgyz radio, television and newspapers.

"Nothing that was promised by the initiators and organizers of the March coup d'etat, or so-called 'Tulip Revolution,' has been fulfilled," he wrote in the weekly Bely Parokhod from Russia.

Mr Akayev also pledged to return to Kyrgyzstan.

However, deputy prosecutor general Abibulla Abdygaparov said in an interview published by state media on Friday that there were currently 68 criminal investigations into Mr Akayev and his family over alleged economic crimes worth $30m.

The country's new leadership have had a difficult first year. The parliamentary Speaker Omurbek Tekebayev resigned last month, after President Kurmanbek Bakiev complained of a tense and inefficient atmosphere in the legislature.

A number of high-profile figures, including politicians, have also been killed in recent months. Some of the deaths have been linked to drug trafficking.