Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov, who was in power for two decades, died yesterday at 66, according to a terse report on state television.

It said Niyazov died at 1:10 am of heart failure and showed a black-framed portrait of the leader. An announcer in a dark suit read a list of Niyazov's accomplishments.

The funeral is to be held on Sunday in his hometown of Kipchak, where Niyazov built Central Asia's largest mosque, called "Spirit of Turkmenbashi," at a reported cost of more than US$100 million.

"We express our deep condolence for the death of President Niyazov," Chinese Counsellor to Turkmenistan Li Hua told China Daily yesterday from Almaty in a telephone interview.

"Niyazov made unremitting efforts to develop Sino-Turkmenistan friendship. We hope and believe the friendly relationship will move forward smoothly after his death," he said.

China ratified the Sino-Turkmenistan Co-operative Agreement on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism in October.

Niyazov also supported energy collaboration with China. In an interview with Xinhua in March, he welcomed Chinese firms to his country to help tap its oil resources around the Caspian Sea. Turkmenistan has the world's fifth-largest natural gas reserves.

Niyazov visited China thrice; and during his most recent visit in April, he signed a joint statement with President Hu Jintao on a natural-gas pipeline project. Under the framework agreement, the two countries are to build a pipeline from the Amu-darya River region in Turkmenistan to China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. China will buy 30 billion cubic metres of gas each year for 30 years, starting in 2009, at a price compatible with that in the "international market."

Chinese Ambassador to Turkmenistan Lu Guisheng said in September that the project had been approved by the Chinese Government.

However, his death may put energy co-operation projects with China in doubt, Sun Zhuangzhi, director at the Department of Central Asia Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily.

Above all, "his death poses a big challenge for the country, which is not well prepared for a power transition, and may lead to political vacuum," he said.

In Ashgabat, the capital, there were no overt signs of Niyazov's passing, but pedestrians appeared quiet and stunned.

"What a sorrow has fallen the Turkmen people," said one woman, who declined to give her name.

Turkmenistan's State Security Council named Deputy Prime Minister Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov the acting president. He has also taken charge of the funeral arrangements, it said.

The State Security Council declared a seven-day national mourning, calling on the country's people to show "firmness and strength" and "unite for the sake of our homeland's peace and prosperity."

Niyazov had led Turkmenistan since 1985, when it was still a Soviet republic.

Source: China Daily