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By The Associated Press - Yuras Karmanau

MINSK, Belarus - The Belarusian Foreign Ministry told the U.S. ambassador on Friday to leave the country and recalled its own ambassador from the U.S. over economic sanctions Washington imposed on the former Soviet nation last year.

State Department spokes-man Tom Casey told reporters that U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart has not been formally expelled.

"The Belarusian government has suggested - I think that's the polite phrase - that she return to the United States for consultations," he said, adding that Stewart will remain in Minsk while the U.S. reviews the situation.

"If the Belarusian government wishes to shoot itself in the foot, they're welcome to do so," Casey said.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said its demand that the U.S. ambassador leave the country had been prompted by U.S. sanctions imposed last fall against Belarus' state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim.

The U.S. last year froze the company's assets and barred American companies from doing business with it.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said Belarus had warned the United States in advance that its response to the sanctions would be "harsh."

A spokesman for President Bush called Friday's move unjustified and said it "only takes them further away from Europe and the rest of the world."

"It is unfortunate that Belarus continues its repressive actions against its own citizens, and President Bush and the United States will continue to stand with the people of Belarus as they seek to live in freedom," said Bush spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Washington also has slapped travel restrictions on Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and members of his inner circle, as well as financial sanctions against Belarusian authorities over their crackdown on opposition and free media.

The United States and the European Union, which also introduced economic and travel sanctions against Belarus, have made clear that Lukashenko must free political prisoners and allow more democratic freedoms before sanctions can be lifted and relations normalized.

Lukashenko began signaling a desire for better relations with the West following Russia's decision to sharply hike prices for oil exports to Belarus - exports on which the country's Soviet-style, centrally controlled economy had long depended. He cast the release of several opposition activists this year as a goodwill gesture to the West.

The U.S. State Department welcomed the releases of opposition activists as positive steps, but urged Lukashenko to free another opposition leader, Alexander Kozulin, as a condition to start a dialogue on normalizing ties. Belarusian authorities allowed Kozulin to attend his wife's funeral, but then put him back behind bars.

Kozulin, who challenged Lukashenko in the 2006 presidential election, was arrested during a postelection protest.

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Associated Press Writer Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.

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