Searching for energy supplies and allies against Iran, the Bush administration is reaching out to leaders who rule countries that are rich in oil and gas but accused of authoritarian rule and human rights violations.
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Equatorial Guinea are all getting special attention. The effort sometimes seems at odds with President Bush's stated second-term goal of spreading democracy.

"If those countries were not oil producers, we would probably not be meeting with their leaders," said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst with the Brookings Institution.
"There is some tension with Bush's democracy-promotion agenda. They are pulling in different directions."

Bush will meet at the White House with the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. Vice President Dick Cheney will visit the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan and its leader, President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Human rights groups have criticized both leaders. But the two former Soviet republics are allies in the war on terrorism, and both have significant energy reserves.
Administration officials defend the meetings and similar ones, noting that Bush and other officials make a point of raising human rights and other social policy concerns, as Bush did when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited earlier.

In addition to promoting democracy, Bush talks about curing America's "addiction to oil," a phrase he repeated as he announced steps to help ease gasoline prices that have soared over $ 3 a gallon in some places. Some 60 % of oil used by the United States comes from overseas.
The search goes on for stable supplies of oil from areas other than the volatile Persian Gulf -- a search joined by energy-thirsty China and India. But much of the world's remaining accessible oil is controlled by governments not particularly friendly to US interests.

Nigeria and Venezuela have become unstable suppliers. The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken steps to reassert state influence over Russia's strategically important oil sector. Oil politics can make for some unusual diplomacy.
"I can tell you that nothing has really taken me aback as secretary of state than the way that the politics of energy is -- I will use the word 'warping' -- diplomacy around the world," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this month.

Rice herself drew some fire for welcoming Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema to the State Department as "a good friend." He seized power in a 1979 coup and his government has been regularly accused by the State Department of human rights violations, including torture and deaths of prisoners. But the country is rich in oil and gas.
"The photograph of you and Mr Obiang will be used by critics of the United States to argue that we are not serious about human rights and democratic reforms in a country with substantial oil wealth," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., wrote Rice in a letter.

Bush is also looking for help in confronting Iran's nuclear ambitions. He raised the issue during Hu's visit but failed to win a commitment from the Chinese leader. Beijing does not want to entertain sanctions against one of its major oil suppliers.
Azerbaijan shares a border with Iran, and Bush hoped to enlist the mostly Muslim nation's help in leaning on Iran to end its uranium enrichment program. But Aliyev told a foreign-policy forum that "Azerbaijan will not be engaged in any kind of potential operation against Iran." Human rights groups have accused Azerbaijan of restricting political and human rights.

Given Bush's emphasis on democracy, he should use the visit "to discuss Azerbaijan's democracy deficit," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, an independent organization that promotes democracy worldwide.
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli defended the warm reception given Aliyev, saying human rights is certainly an important issue between the two countries -- but so are energy security, stability in the region and the fight against terrorism.
"And we pursue all of these in parallel while at the same time sticking to our principles and not sacrificing expediency for principle," Ereli said. A White House statement said Bush would raise energy diversification, the war on terrorism and democracy promotion at the meeting.

Iraq war critics have long challenged the administration's courting of Saudi Arabia and other undemocratic but oil-rich Gulf states. And Democrats are raising anew Bush's and Cheney's ties to the oil industry.
Bush's early career was in the Texas oilfields. In his 2000 campaign, he pledged to use that experience to jawbone oil producing nations to help keep down prices. Cheney once headed oil services giant Halliburton.