Kazakhstan\'s president signed a contentious anti-extremism bill into law Monday, his office said. Rights groups say the legislation could be used to restrict religious and civil freedoms. President Nursultan Nazarbayev\'s office said the bill aims to prevent religious, political and other forms of extremism in the oil-rich Central Asian country, whose neighbors have been plagued by Islamic militant attacks. The bill, approved by Parliament earlier this month, names political parties and media among potential sources of extremism. It gives the city court of the capital, Astana, the authority to designate a group as extremist. The bill also expands law enforcement agencies\' and prosecutors\' rights to use surveillance and to suspend organizations suspected of extremism. Local rights groups, however, say the bill does not precisely define extremism and could be used to persecute civilians and mainstream religious organizations that are not engaged in extremist activity. Radical Islamic groups emerged in predominantly Muslim Central Asia after the 1991 Soviet collapse. Bombings and other problems blamed on religious groups have hit Kazakhstan\'s neighbors, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, in recent years. No Islamic militant attacks have been reported in Kazakhstan, which has a large non-Muslim population. But Nazarbayev recently warned that radical religious groups were stepping up activity here, and urged tougher security measures. (AP)