HAIFA —Robert Finn, the former U. S. ambassador to Afghanistan (2002-2003) and now a professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, raised the two controversial issues of oil and American presence in a foreign region at a conference yesterday at the University of Haifa .

Finn argued that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) saw the American presence in the region as "deliberately fostering regime change under the guise of promoting democracy."  To the SCO countries, he continued, the U.S. was interested only in oil in the region.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years ago, Central Asia has become a significant region, especially because of its natural resources, the former ambassador pointed out. Some call it a "great game" for control of Central Asian oil resources.

Finn gave his assessment on "The New Central Asia" in a conference on " China and the Middle East: Central Asian Connections," sponsored by the University of Haifa 's Department of East Asian Studies.

Of the five countries that comprise the region, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan hold the majority of the region's oil. These countries are all landlocked.  Therefore they have to depend on their neighbors for access to Western markets via pipelines. This adds another dimension to the struggle for political and economic control in the region.

The players in this game, Finn said, contend for both control of oil and gas production and for the pipelines that deliver the resources to markets.  The two other Central Asia countries are Tajikistan and Uzbekistan .  The five countries have a combined population of 55.9 million.

Finn mentioned that U.S. President George W. Bush supported the oil pipeline project from Iran , via Pakistan , out through India , despite the status of U.S.-Iran relations.

In the region, he said, China is also in a "global race with India to line up energy resources fro the next century."   China recently signed a $100 billion contract with Iran for oil.

The U.S. presence has become an issue in the wake of September 11 and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan , Finn claims. In order to conduct military operations in Afghanistan , military bases were opened in Uzbekistan , Tajikistan , and Kyrgyzstan .

The SCO, made up of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, initially came out in support of the international coalition's war against terror. However, at its annual summit meeting, in Kazakhstan in the summer of 2005, it "called America 's bluff," as another panel member, University of London Prof. Shira Akiner of the School of Oriental and African Studies, referred to it. The SCO called on the United States to set a deadline for the removal of its military bases in Central Asia , considering that military operation were declared over.

This coming summer's SCO summit meeting, Finn stated, will present "an opportunity to express concern about the U.S. presence in the region." The SCO sees American presence as a deliberate attempt to change their governments. He said the Central Asian countries are particularly suspicious of the CIA.

Finn also cited their doubts about the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, whose main goals are to foster democracy internationally. He noted that the Peace Corps was shut down in Uzbekistan in June of 2005.

Finn provided another example of the bad image the U.S. has in the Central Asia region. When he opened the first American embassy in Azerbaijan in 1992, he spent most of his time trying to convince the American government that that country was "really an independent nation."

The U.S. involvement is complex in Central Asia , the former ambassador explained. And the Central Asia leaders are "suspicious of our intentions." Finn conceded that "our ( America 's) goals are frankly misunderstood and seemingly contradictory."

Central Asia in many of our minds is one of the "last blank pages on our maps," Finn described. The region was once seen as a "wind-swept desert." But it has swiftly evolved, almost over night, to one of the great "energy treasures" of our time.