ASHGABAT, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Turkmenistan, seeking to emerge from decades of isolation, has sent a batch of humanitarian aid to neighbouring Afghanistan to help it cope with a record-cold winter, a Turkmen official said on Thursday.

An unusually cold winter has hit many parts of Central Asia this year, including Turkmenistan itself, the region's top natural gas exporter. In Afghanistan, the extreme cold has killed several hundred people and about 40,000 cattle.

The government official said Turkmenistan had sent 500 tonnes of diesel fuel, 1,000 tonnes of flour and 8,000 tonnes worth of clothes to northern Afghanistan, home to a large diaspora of ethnic Turkmen.

Locked away under Soviet rule and then the 21-year reign of former present Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan is now opening up and is trying to assume a more active regional role under its new leader, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

Berdymukhamedov, who came to power in late 2006 after Niyazov's death, has reversed some of his predecessor's most unpopular measures and promised to raise Turkmenistan's international profile.

During his rule, Niyazov took the title of Turkmenbashi (Head of the Turkmen) and had thousands of portraits and statues of himself erected, including a statue in gold leaf that rotated to face the sun in the capital Ashgabat. (Reporting by Marat Gurt; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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