Kazakh leader wants to stay in power "for long time"

By Olzhas Auyezov

ATYRAU, Kazakhstan, June 6 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's long-serving President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Friday he intended to stay in power "for a long time", dismissing speculation about a possible succession plan.

The 67-year-old leader, who has ruled the oil-rich Central Asian state since 1989, stirred talk about a potential successor this year after saying he did not plan to stay in power forever.

But on Friday, Nazarbayev told reporters he had no intention of leaving any time soon.

"All the talk about a successor is just gossip. There are no successors," he said. "I am not going anywhere yet. ... We are going to work for a long time to come."

A possible change of leadership in Central Asia's biggest economy and oil producer is a worry for foreign investors already alarmed by the government's increasingly assertive oil diplomacy.

Nazarbayev has been tightening his grip on power in past years, securing the right to run for office indefinitely and holding a snap parliamentary election which handed his political party all the seats in the lower house.

He had told Reuters in an interview in March he would not stay around forever. "I have been in this job for so many years and after all I might hand it over to the next generation, so to say, when I see that we need new, fresh people..." he said.

The Kazakh leader remains genuinely popular in his steppe nation of 15 million after presiding over years of uninterrupted economic growth and rising living standards.