Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has banned the playing of recorded music at public events, on television and at weddings in a bid to fend off foreign influences. A decree signed by Niyazov and published in newspapers \"bans the use in Turkmenistan of sound recordings... at musical performances on state holidays, in broadcasts by Turkmen television channels, at all cultural events organised by state and social institutions, in places of mass assembly and at weddings and celebrations organised by the public. \"In comments carried by the official daily newspaper Neitralny Turkmenistan, Niyazov said there was a need \"to protect true culture, including the musical and singing traditions of the Turkmen people, from the negative influences of factors that to them are foreign.\" Niyazov has ruled this natural gas-rich country of some five million people virtually single-handed since Soviet times. He has closed down Soviet-built institutions such as ballet and opera theatres that staged Western classical music. Radio and television programmes are dominated by performances of his own poems and philosophical writings set to music. Niyazov is in the habit of presenting favoured performers of traditional music with official awards and cash prizes of as much as 10,000 dollars (8,200 euros). (AFP)