Turkmen driving licence candidates will in future have to pass an exam in President Saparmurat Niyazov's "philosophical" writings, a transport ministry official said on Monday.

Alongside practical and theoretical driving tests, candidates will sit an exam in Niyazov's Rukhnama or "spiritual" guide, the basis of official ideology in this former Soviet republic, the official said. "The exam in the Rukhnama is needed to educate future drivers in the high moral principles of Turkmen society," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004