Kazakhstan hosts first OSCE summit in decade

The publicity-hungry Central Asian state of Kazakhstan on Wednesday hosted the first summit of the OSCE in over a decade, despite concerns a questionable rights record made it an unsuitable venue.

The meeting of the trans-Atlantic security group -- which aims to prevent and heal conflicts across Europe and the former Soviet Union -- got underway amid some of the tightest security ever seen for such a meeting in the region.

Leaders including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will seek to reinvigorate the group's role in the first summit since a meeting in Istanbul in 1999.

"This summit is a sign of the rebirth of the organization," Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who championed the holding of the meeting, said as he declared the summit open.

He called for the creation of a single security space spanning "the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Indian Oceans," noting that some of the most serious threats to European security come outside the continent.

The OCSE's meetings -- which operate on the principle of seeking full consensus among its 56 member states -- often become mired in disputes between members. Diplomats have warned a final communique may not even be issued.