* More than 20 percent of Belarus' territory was contaminated by radioactive fallout from the April 1986 Chernobyl explosion in neighboring Ukraine, and many Belarusians have remained suspicious about nuclear power.

* U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has dubbed Belarus one of the "outposts of tyranny" along with Cuba, Myanmar and Zimbabwe. Lukashenko, first elected in 1994, has stifled dissent and extended his rule through a series of votes which international organizations said were marred by fraud.