"I've heard something about the war but seen nothing on television," Vyepa Chopanov, a 23-year-old fruit-seller in one of the central Asian capital's dust-choked bazaars, said. "Anyway I've got a family to feed, I'm not that interested."

Such responses are common in this former Soviet republic some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Iraq's northeastern border, although the two countries have historical and cultural and a sizeable Turkmen minority lives in northern Iraq.

Turkmenistan's entirely state-run domestic media have maintained complete silence about the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, from the diplomatic manoeuvring that preceded the US-led campaign up to the scenes of jubilation and looting in Baghdad that followed.

Niyazov -- who some opposition figures have dubbed a "little Saddam" -- is keen to avoid sparking discontent among his own population of some 4.7 million people, Dosym Satpayev, director of the Kazakhstan-based ARG risk assessment company, said.

Niyazov "doesn't want ordinary people to compare him with Saddam Hussein and to start thinking that the United States might come and free them," he said.

"His control of the media is almost total," Satpayev noted.

Niyazov anointed himself "Turkmenbashi", or "Father of all Turkmen", after being named president-for-life of this impoverished but natural gas-rich desert country in 1999.

His image in portraits and gleaming bronze statues looms over seemingly every street and in shops and offices and his photograph is plastered across newspapers, a personality cult more than comparable with Saddam Hussein's.

Few people speak out against Niyazov in a country where imprisoning dissenters is common.

Although he has declared Turkmenistan a neutral country, Russian media recently reported Niyazov as coming out against the US-led attack on Iraq during a visit to neighbouring Iran, an important purchasor of Turkmen gas.

But broadcasters have not strayed from their usual menu of poetry and song considered fitting with Turkmen tradition, reports on rain levels and agriculture and readings of the "Rukhnama" or "Spiritual Guide," a tome apparently penned by Niyazov which has surplanted the works of Marx and Lenin at the centre of national life.

Alternative sources of information are available only to a privileged few.

"If people want to follow what goes on in other countries they do it via satellite TV. But most people aren't interested -- I'm not," a 37-year-old higher education lecturer said on condition of anonymity.

Satpayev estimates that no more than 20 percent of the population has access to foreign broadcasting via satellite.

The only Internet service provider recently stopped signing up private clients citing funding problems, while virtually all Internet cafes have been closed.

Access to several Internet sites critical of Niyazov, such as Germany's Deutsche Welle, is blocked.

Such restrictions have contributed to international condemnation of Niyazov which has intensified since evidence emerged that he unleashed a wave of repression against his opponents including torture, deportation to desert regions and threats of rape following an alleged attempt on his life last year.

But Niyazov has not quite managed to stifle all debate.

"My son has a satellite dish and I try not to miss the Russian news programmes," pensioner Valentina Mironova said. "A friend of mine comes round to watch and we discuss Iraq for hours -- it hurts when they show those poor Iraqi children."

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