UPDATE 1-Kazakhstan expects sharp decline in 2012 grain crop

* Deputy minister forecasts "average" crop of 13-15 mln tonnes

* Kazakh 2011 harvest post-Soviet record of 27 mln tonnes

* Sown area little changed at 16.3 mln hectares (Adds quote, details)

ASTANA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan expects its grain harvest to revert to an average level of between 13 million and 15 million tonnes this year, a sharp decline from the record post-Soviet crop of 2011, Deputy Agriculture Minister Muslim Umiryayev said on Tuesday.

Central Asia's largest wheat exporter harvested 27 million tonnes of grain by clean weight last year, its largest crop since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In drought-hit 2010, the harvest was only 12.2 million tonnes.

"We are forecasting the 2012 harvest at an average level of 13 to 15 million tonnes," Umiryayev told a news conference. He later specified this level as the average for the last 12 years.

The ministry said in a statement that the total area sown to grain in Kazakhstan was expected to reach 16.3 million hectares in 2012, slightly more than the 16.2 million hectares last year.

Within this total, the area sown to wheat in 2012 would decline to 13.5 million hectares from 13.8 million tonnes last year, the ministry said. (Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Robin Paxton; editing by Keiron Henderson)