BELARUS:BELARUS, DESCRIBED by the United States as the "last dictatorship in Europe", has offered a slender olive branch to Washington in a rumbling row over spying, sanctions and human rights.
Only four staff remain at the US embassy in Minsk, compared to more than 30 at the start of this year, after Belarus expelled US diplomats for allegedly trying to set up a spy ring in the former Soviet republic.
The latest batch of 11 diplomats was forced to leave the country last weekend, amid Belarusian anger at US sanctions against state oil firm Belneftekhim and demands from Washington that President Alexander Lukashenko release political activists from jail.
Mr Lukashenko has crushed opposition parties and independent media since taking power in 1994.
Washington says it might resume dialogue with Belarus if it releases its most prominent detainee, academic Alexander Kozulin, who was jailed for 5½ years for leading protests against the 2006 election results.
Other activists were imprisoned following demonstrations in January, and a US lawyer is in custody for allegedly using false documents.
After clashing with traditional ally Russia last year over energy prices, Mr Lukashenko embarked on what appeared to be a tentative rapprochement with the EU, which criticised the latest expulsion of US diplomats this week as "unjustified and harmful".
In a softening of rhetoric, Andrei Popov, a spokesman for Belarus's foreign ministry, responded by insisting that his country was "fully in favour of mutually beneficial co-operation with the United States".
"But you have to admit that, for that, both sides must be ready to make steps towards each other, on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect," Mr Popov said.
In recent weeks, Washington has threatened to demand the closure of the Belarusian embassy in Washington and a consulate in New York in response to the expulsion of its own diplomats for allegedly recruiting spies.
The Belarus security service, which is still called the KGB, accuses the US embassy of hiring Belarusians to photograph police officials, airports and villages in border areas.
"Other than laughter I really don't have much reaction to it," US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said of the claims.
"It's completely unfounded and untrue. They can come up with whatever excuses they like for their totally unjustified and unwarranted [expulsion] of our staff, but I'm sorry, this is just ridiculous."
