THE TURMOIL in Afghanistan after the Islamist Taliban militia seized the capital a week ago has sent shockwaves through its northern neighbours, the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
And predominantly Sunni Islamic Pakistan is concerned that the Sunni Muslim fundamentalism of the Taliban may find a favourable echo with its own Muslim fundamentalists.
Yesterday the President of Kazakhstan, Mr Nursultan Nazarbayev, speaking before a special summit of five former Soviet republics and Russia, urged other countries not to interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. President Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan was ready to offer its own peace initiative at the meeting. Russia will be represented by Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Prime Minister.
In the Afghan capital, Kabul yesterday Taliban militia armed with machineguns and sticks forced residents into mosques for prayers. Another sign of regional tension was an attack yesterday on the Taliban by a senior ayatollah in Shia Iran. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati accused the Taliban of defaming Islam by imposing "fossilised" policies.
Leaders in the five Central Asian states fear any brand of radical Islam and the unrest it could provoke in their own ethnically diverse nations.
They also fear that Russia, their former colonial master, could use any spread in radical Islam to the ex-Soviet republics to strengthen its influence over the young states and their vast energy and mineral resources.
Afghanistan borders three of Central Asia's five states Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan's most obvious influence is in Tajikistan, where a four-year civil war between the government and Islamic fighters has killed tens of thousands.
The Afghan warlord, Mr Ahmad Shah Masood, himself an ethnic Tajik, and other Afghan factions have allowed the guerrillas to set up bases and train in the mountains across the Amu Darya river which separates the two mountainous countries.
The Tajik Islamic leader, Mr Sayed Abdullo Nuri, is based in the northern Afghan town of Taloqan, while thousands of refugees from Tajikistan shelter in dust-blown camps inside Afghanistan. A sizeable part of the Afghan drug trade is now routed through Central Asia, bringing its own problems of crime etc.
Human rights organisations say Islamic leaders have been imprisoned in Uzbekistan, which fears Islam as a grassroots base for political opposition.
Diplomats say Uzbekistan has provided low-key support like representative offices in the republic to the powerful Jumbish i-Milli faction of the ethnic Uzbek warlord, Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, which stands in the way of the Taliban taking control of northern Afghanistan.
If the Taliban does take the north of Afghanistan this would give Russia an excuse to try and strengthen its presence in the region, citing instability along vulnerable southern borders. Thousands of Russian troops already prop up the weak Tajik government.
"The Russians are pushing Uzbekistan to support Dostum which would inevitably involve Russia," a diplomat said. "This is the last thing Uzbekistan wants. It wants to build itself as an independent state."
Pakistan, considered a main supporter of the Taliban, is expected to exert a moderating influence, also pushing its proteges to sign a peace accord with Gen Dostam.
Russia, which now controls all the existing pipeline routes out of Central Asia, is fighting hard to hold on to its monopoly.
On April 26th China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed a treaty demilitarising 62 miles of their 5,000-mile border.
Russian and Chinese deputy foreign ministers are likely to discus Afghanistan in Moscow next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Meanwhile dozens of educated, middle-class people scrambled to leave Kabul at dawn yesterday, fleeing what one called a fundamentalist Islamic prison.
.The Taliban's acting Minister of Information and Culture, Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi denied that passers-by were being forced into the mosque to offer prayers. "Nobody is forcing them to go into the mosque. The soldiers with guns and sticks are Just trying to keep the road clear," he said.