The government in Kazakhstan has set a rare precedent by backing down over the planned land sales that sparked off a wave of major protests across the country.

Astana has pushed the national unity narrative so strongly that there is little space for policy disagreements.

Authorities are facing tough choices in Kazakhstan, as demonstrations against plans to sell and rent swathes of farming land threaten to evolve into a broader anti-government movement. Some analysts are cautioning that the situation is combustible.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, facing a growing wave of protests against planned changes to land ownership, evoked the image of war-torn Ukraine on Sunday as he called for national unity.

A press conference in Almaty on the proposed plans to rent land to foreign investors had to be cancelled April 29 after police detained the organizers.

The land protest movement in Kazakhstan is gathering momentum and spreading to more cities, while the authorities appear determined to ride out the public anger.

Hundreds of people staged street protests in two cities in Kazakhstan on Wednesday over land reform, Kazakh media and local activists reported, a rare act of defiance that could pose a challenge to the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Hundreds of people held a rare public protest in the Kazakh oil industry hub Atyrau on Sunday against new regulations which they fear will allow foreigners to buy local farmland, although the government has said this would not happen.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, never shy about thrusting his once-obscure country on to the global stage, has unveiled perhaps his most ambitious initiative ever: to rid the world of war.