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Turkmenistan prepared on Friday to set a date for elections to replace its late leader as jockeying began between the West and Russia for influence over the gas-rich nation.

With no obvious successor to President Saparmurat Niyazov, 66, who died from heart failure on Thursday after 21 years in office, commentators predicted a power struggle.

They also said the leader's sudden demise could spark a geopolitical battle between Russia and the West for access to the Central Asian nation's enormous natural gas wealth.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called for continuity in bilateral relations on Friday, saying in a message of condolence that "strengthening our partnership is in the true interests of the people of Russia and Turkmenistan."

Acting President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov said on Friday a date for elections will be set on Tuesday.

The date of the next presidential elections will be set by the People's Council, the country's highest legislative body, at a session scheduled for Tuesday, Berdymukhamedov decreed.

"National presidential elections will be held on a democratic basis that has been laid by the great leader," said the decree, carried by official newspapers.

The decree also said that on Tuesday the People's Council will consider "candidates nominated for the president's post."

Turkmenistan last held presidential elections in 1992, and Niyazov won with 95.5 percent of the vote.

In 1999 he was named president for life, but in recent years he pledged to step down and hold elections by 2010.

The Russian mass-market Komsomolskaya Pravda daily said on Friday that "we have to patiently wait for the outcome of the fierce struggle that will now take place in Ashgabat (Turkmenistan's capital).

"This will determine who takes control of the gas wealth of Turkmenistan Moscow or Washington," it said. All Turkmen gas is exported via Russian pipelines. But the US could press the new leadership to build another pipeline under the Caspian Sea.

The funeral was scheduled for Sunday.

Invited by Turkmen Government, Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan will attend the funeral.

Friday's editions of Turkmen newspapers were fully devoted to Niyazov's death, carrying front-page photographs of him and in a Soviet tradition reaction and condolences from citizens and staff of various enterprises.

(China Daily December 23, 2006)