ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan has abandoned plans to build a grain terminal in the Georgian port of Poti due to political instability, the agriculture minister said on Monday.
Kazakhstan, one of the biggest foreign investors inGeorgia, sees the country as a key oil supply route to Europe,part of its drive to diversify exports away from Russia.
"We've dropped the Poti (plan)," Agriculture MinisterAkylbek Kurishbayev told a parliament session.
"A letter has been sent to the (Kazakh) government urgingit not to go ahead with the investment and leave it at that.It's clear that this is linked to international problems, tothe situation in Georgia."
Kazakhstan had previously said its investment in Georgiawould not be jeopardised by Tbilisi's conflict with Russia.
At the height of the conflict, in August, Kazakhstansuspended oil shipments through another Georgian port of Batumiwhich is controlled by Kazakh state oil company KazMunaiGas.Shipments were restored in early September.
Kazakhstan has announced plans to build the terminal inPoti, on Georgia's Black Sea coast, some time next year as partof its push to diversify supply routes for all of its mainexport products.
The Poti terminal had been due to have capacity of350,000-500,000 tonnes a year and be able to store 24,000tonnes of grain at any one time.
Kazakhstan, five times the size of France and CentralAsia's biggest grain producer, gathered a post-Soviet record of20.1 million tonnes of grain last year.
(Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by MariaGolovnina; editing by Christopher Johnson)
