Turkmenistan's New Leader Little-Known

Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, right, stands with other officials near the coffin of late President Saparmurat Niyazov during his burial in the capital Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sunday, Dec. 24, 2006. As health minister of Turkmenistan, he presided over a medical system regarded as one of the world's worst, including the closure of all hospitals outside the capital. Now Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov is suddenly head of the country. (AP Photo/Andriy Mosienko, Pool) (Andriy Mosienko - AP)

Any attempt to cultivate genuine popular support for Berdymukhamedov could be undermined by questions over his actions as health minister.

He was responsible for implementing Niyazov's 2005 decree that all hospitals outside Ashgabat be closed and that 15,000 civilian doctors be fired and replaced by military physicians.

The move was denounced by human rights organizations including Amnesty International, which also noted that because Turkmens increasingly have to pay for a wide range of treatments "health care has become financially inaccessible to most people."

Although Turkmenistan takes in billions of dollars of natural gas revenue a year, its health system is widely regarded as the second worst in the ex-Soviet Union _ ahead of only Tajikistan, a country that has virtually no natural resources to sell.

The World Health Organization says Turkmenistan's life expectancy is the lowest in Europe _ in which the WHO includes the country _ just 56 years for males.

But if Berdymukhamedov faces popular discontent, he may be more in danger from high officials, Satpayev said.

"Not all in Niyazov's circle are lambs _ they will understand that they might lose their previous positions and begin intrigues," he said.

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Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.