* Cameron is first British PM to visit Kazakhstan
* British leader wants business deals, help on Afghanistan
* Activists say he must raise human rights issues too (Adds fresh Cameron quotes, details, background)
By Andrew Osborn
ATYRAU, Kazakhstan, June 30 (Reuters) - British PrimeMinister David Cameron helped inaugurate the world's costliestoil project in Kazakhstan on Sunday on a trip aimed at sealingbusiness deals but quickly beset by questions over the CentralAsian nation's poor human rights record.
Kazakhstan hopes Cameron's visit, the first by a servingBritish prime minister, will cement its status as a risingeconomic power and confer a degree of the legitimacy from theWest it has long sought.
The visit takes place just days before the nation marks 15years since the founding of the new Kazakh capital Astana, alsothe 73rd birthday of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a nationalholiday and cause for celebration that has been anticipated fordays in state media.
Nazarbayev, a former Communist party apparatchik, hasoverseen market reforms and maintains wide popularity among the17-million strong population, but has tolerated no dissent oropposition during his more than two decades in power.
Cameron said he hoped the 30 businessmen accompanying himwould sign over 700 million pounds worth of deals during histwo-day trip.
"We are in a global race for jobs and investment. This isone of the most rapidly emerging countries in the world,"Cameron told reporters on his arrival in the Kazakh oil capitalAtyrau.
His office said he aimed to "put British businesses in primeposition to secure contracts that the Government believes couldtotal £85 billion in the coming years".
Cameron is also hoping to persuade Kazakhstan to expandtransit rights for British military forces relocating equipmentfrom Afghanistan between now and a planned withdrawal next year.Nazarbayev has already granted overflight rights, but Cameron islooking for land transit rights too.
Cameron and Nazarbayev together opened the Bolashak (Future)oil plant which will process crude that is due to start flowingfrom the giant Kashagan offshore oilfield in September.
Royal Dutch Shell has a 16.81 percent stake in the facility,which is in the Kazakh segment of the Caspian Sea. Nazarbayevsaid last week consortium members had so far invested $48billion, making it the most expensive oil venture in the world.
TEMPTING TARGET
As Britain's trade with the euro zone suffers because of thecurrency bloc's debt woes, it is looking further afield to forgebusiness links with countries that have enjoyed rapid economicgrowth in recent years.
With a $200 billion economy, the largest in Central Asia,and deep oil and gas reserves, Kazakhstan is a tempting target.
Britain is already among the top three sources of foreigndirect investment, according to Kazakh officials.
Since its 1991 independence, officials say British firmshave invested about $20 billion in their economy, part of atotal $170 billion ploughed into Kazakhstan since then.
But more high profile trade links carry political risks.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Cameron had a duty touse his trip to denounce human rights abuses.
"We are very concerned about the serious and deterioratinghuman rights situation there in recent years, including credibleallegations of torture, the imprisonment of government critics,(and) tight controls over the media and freedom of expressionand association," it said in a letter on Friday.
Answering questions from reporters in Atyrau on Sunday,Cameron said he never put trade and business interests beforerights.
"We will raise all the issues, including human rights.That's part of our dialogue and I'll be signing a strategicpartnership with Kazakhstan," he said.
"Nothing is off the agenda, including human rights."
Activists most want Cameron to bring up the case of VladimirKozlov, a jailed opposition leader, when he meets Nazarbayev.
An outspoken critic of the Kazakh leader, Kozlov was jailedfor seven-and-a-half years in October for colluding with afugitive billionaire in a failed attempt to rally oil workers tobring down the government. Kozlov denied the charges.
Nazarbayev, a former steelworker who now holds the title"The Leader of the Nation", says that he puts stability andrising living standards before hasty political changes in hissteppe nation, the world's ninth-largest by area and five timesthe size of France.
Comparing Kazakhstan to "Asian economic tigers" like SouthKorea and Singapore, he has said he wants to turn it into "theeconomic snow leopard of Central Asia". (Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; in Almaty; Editing bySonya Hepinstall)