Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has warned of the destabilising effects of importing Western-style democracy too rapidly to central Asia. Speaking at the opening of a summit on foreign investment in Almaty, he said democracy should be learned over time. His remarks follow a wave of popular uprisings in the region, including neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Regional leaders have accused the US or unnamed foreign powers of encouraging the protest movements. The international conference on foreign investment was organised in Almaty, Kazakhstan, by America\'s prestigious Asia Society. President Nazarbayev said his country welcomed investment in the growing Caspian Sea oil industry and other economic sectors. But he said that western partners should not, as he put it, try to introduce their principles 100% into Kazakhstan. Democracy, he said, was a culture which society had to learn over time. Mr Nazarbayev repeated his assertion that the best way to bring prosperity and stability to central Asia would be to recreate an economic union with open borders for people and capital. (BBC)