February 1, 2008 -- Bill Clinton came under fire yesterday after a bombshell report suggested the former president used his international connections to smooth the way for a millionaire businessman's lucrative mining deal in Kazakhstan, and later received a huge donation from him to the Clinton Foundation.

Good-government groups ripped Clinton for the secrecy surrounding his tangled foreign involvements and said it raised issues concerning the overlap between his philanthropy and his wife's run for the White House.

"You do wonder whether this sort of influence game will continue if Sen. Clinton" wins office, said Massie Ritsch, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics.

Ritsch spoke after The New York Times revealed that the former president accompanied wealthy businessman Frank Giustra to Kazakhstan, the Central Asian country that was home of Sasha Baron Cohen's wacky "journalist," Borat.

In that country, Clinton and Giustra had a private supper with President Nursultan Nazarbayev at a time when Giustra was looking for a deal to tap uranium deposits there.

While they were there, Clinton praised Nazarbayev's effort to lead an international, democracy-promoting group that monitors elections - despite opposition to it from the US and Clinton's own wife, the report said.

Giustra, a novice in the uranium business, raised eyebrows in the mining industry when he beat out more experienced rivals for the contract with the state-owned uranium agency Kazatomprom two days after the visit ended.

A few months later, he contributed $31 million to the Clinton Foundation, the paper said.

Initially, Giustra said the uranium business didn't come up at all at the dinner, but later conceded it may have come up in a "general" way when the Kazatomprom head told the paper it was directly discussed.

Giuntra also arranged for Clinton to meet with the head of Kazatomprom last year at his Chappaqua home on another topic, the paper said. Clinton and Giuntra initially denied it, but later conceded it happened.

Clinton officials said that suggestions of a quid pro quo were unfair, and the ex-president received no personal fee. They and Giustra said the sole purpose of the trip was to promote a discounted AIDS-drug program through his foundation.

But government-watchers said it creates a poor appearance - especially since Clinton's charitable donors are not made public and he's said he'll continue his foundation work even if his wife becomes president.

"Could you imagine if Laura Bush were cutting deals on the side and jetting to foreign countries and contradicting her husband" on foreign policy, said Ritsch, adding that even if it was for a good cause, "people would cry foul."

"If the former president plans to continue raising money for his foundation and library after his wife is elected, he can help put questions to rest [by] being completely open about who's contributing and anything they might have given and anything they might get in return . . . It's a unique situation with great potential for undue influence."

Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause in Washington, said "I think that the fact that Hillary Clinton is running for the presidency exposes Bill Clinton to a number of challenges, and it seems to me. . . that the word 'transparency' has to be repeated every morning in Bill Clinton's mind.

"I don't know whether there's anything illegal about the relationship, but it does give an appearance of concern."

He said Bill Clinton should consider putting the foundation in a blind trust should his wife win.

The ex-president's spokesman, Ben Yarrow, told The Post that Clinton "had no involvement in Frank Giustra's business dealings in Kazakhstan.

"The only agreement he signed in Kazakhstan during his six-hour visit was to allow that country to purchase lower-cost medicine to fight AIDS through the Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative."

Yarrow said Clinton will reveal future donors should his wife win.

maggie.haberman@nypost.com

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