Turkmenistan president to attend NATO summit

ASHGABAT, March 21 (Reuters) - Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov will attend a NATO summit in April, the first leader of his long-isolated homeland to seek closer ties with the Western security alliance, state media reported.

Berdymukhamedov will visit Bucharest on April 2-4, the state Turkmen Khabarlary agency said late on Thursday.

Turkmenistan, Central Asia's top natural gas exporter, was isolated first under Soviet rule and then during the 21-year reign of reclusive leader Saparmurat Niyazov who died in late 2006.

Niyazov rarely went on foreign visits and ruled his desert nation, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, as a personal fiefdom.

Berdymukhamedov, has made steps to end isolation and balance his nation's traditionally close relations with Russia by boosting ties with the West.

Moscow is particularly sensitive to ex-Soviet states' contacts with NATO and still sees Central Asia as part of its sphere of interest.

Turkmenistan sells all of its exported gas to Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. The West has urged Turkmenistan to consider joining an alternative Nabucco pipeline project designed to bypass Russia. (Reporting by Marat Gurt; writing by Olzhas Auyezov, editing by Myra MacDonald)