Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev urged the Iranian regime to follow his country’s lead and swear off nuclear arms.

“I call on the Iranian leadership once again to follow the Kazakh example,” Nazarbayev said in a speech today in Berlin. He said he’d discussed the issue with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with whom he has “close” relations.

The Kazakh leader said he told Ahmadinejad that peaceful nuclear research could draw in new investors and technology. He urged the conflicting parties over Iran’s program to resolve differences through talks. “That would be the right step,” he said. Kazakhstan renounced its nuclear program in 1993.

--Editor: Andrew Atkinson

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net