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Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev www.daylife.com ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's failure to make sufficient progress towards democracy risks undermining Europe's main human rights watchdog when the country takes over its chairmanship in 2010, a U.S. rights group said.

Oil-rich Kazakhstan, courted by the West as an alternative energy supplier, was chosen last year to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) despite criticism of its often patchy human rights record.

Freedom House, in a report published late on Tuesday, said the ex-Soviet nation had fallen short of its OSCE commitments.

"The OSCE is a critical player in efforts to promote democracy and human rights in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union," Jeffrey Goldstein, Freedom House senior program manager for Central Asia, said in a statement.

"Kazakhstan's poor performance threatens to undermine the OSCE's reputation and effectiveness, even as the region faces new threats from a resurgent Russia."

Kazakh officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in power since 1989, vowed in June to press ahead with reforms to create a more democratic parliament, relax electoral laws and make it easier for political parties to register.

Credited at home for economic growth and rising incomes, the veteran leader is accused by Western rights groups of tolerating no political dissent. Last year, Nazarbayev's political party won all seats in parliament in a vote criticised by the OSCE.

Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin was in Washington this week to discuss Kazakhstan's progress as well as ways to deepen energy cooperation. U.S. oil companies have invested billions of dollars in Kazakh Caspian oilfields.

"Freedom House urges U.S. officials to stress that Kazakhstan must take its OSCE commitments seriously if it wants to maintain its current relationship with Washington," Goldstein said.

"Kazakhstani citizens deserve to be accorded the democratic freedoms their leaders have promised to provide, yet their government continues to impede basic rights, from freedom of speech to freedom of religion."