ASTANA, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan's parliament tentatively approved the president's proposal to reduce the presidential term from seven to five years after 2012, when Nursultan Nazarbayev is expected to leave office, a speaker said.

The parliamentary hearing in the first reading followed proposals from Nazarbayev, who has led the energy-rich Central Asian state for 18 years, earlier in the day. The bills will be heard in the second reading May 18, said Ural Mukhamedzhanov, the speaker of the lower house.

"We want to emphasize our democratic commitments," said the 66-year-old president of the former Soviet republic, which has posted high economic growth and relative stability stemming from vast oil and gas reserves. The country's GDP grew 10.6% last year and 9.4% in 2005.

In his address to parliament, the president also proposed a series of constitutional amendments which he said were designed to transform the country from a presidential republic into a presidential-parliamentary one. Nazarbayev said parliament should be given wider rights in staff decisions of the Central Election Commission and granted more control over budget implementation.

The president also called for lifting a ban on state funding for public organizations. "A plan must be developed to provide partial financing of political parties from the state budget," he said.

The president proposed partially lifting the current moratorium on capital punishment, and allowing the death sentence to be passed only in exceptional circumstances for those involved in terrorist attacks involving casualties, and for particularly grave crimes.