enior American officials are suddenly beating a path to Central Asia to discuss "security issues" in a volatile region hemmed in by Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.

CIA Director George Tenet visited Kazakhstan, Georgia and Uzbekistan last week. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright goes to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan later this month.

The official reason for these trips is to discuss drug smuggling, Islamic terrorism, spillovers from the war in Afghanistan, human rights and democracy in republics that have remained virtual dictatorships since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

But the real reason is gas and oil. Central Asia has more of the stuff than the Persian Gulf. About 40 billion barrels of proven oil reserves have been found beneath the Caspian Sea and three adjoining countries, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Up to 200 billion more barrels of oil have yet to be discovered, geologists say, along with huge deposits of natural gas.

What makes Caspian oil particularly attractive is that it is not controlled by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the Arab-dominated cartel responsible for two oil shocks in the 1970s whose recent cutback in production caused another price spiral at American gas pumps.

Unlike the Arabs, the Central Asian republics have no reservations about allowing foreigners to develop their energy sector. U.S. firms have won lucrative contracts there and Washington is pushing a pipeline project to bring oil from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, bypassing both Iran and Russia.

The problem is that while they are rich in natural resources, all of Central Asia's republics suffer repressive rule by former Communist Party bosses who have done little to address the appalling poverty and rising unemployment of their 55 million people.

This has spawned crime, arms and drug smuggling from Afghanistan - which recently overtook Myanmar as the world's leading producer of opium - and a variety of Islamic guerrilla movements, both homegrown and imported, intent on overthrowing the existing order.

In his annual threat assessment to Congress in February, Tenet described Central Asia as "a breeding ground for a new generation of Islamic extremists, taking advantage of increasing dissatisfaction."

Stephen Sestanovich, Albright's top adviser on post-Soviet countries, said terrorist bombings, attempts to assassinate Central Asian leaders and cross-border attacks by armed groups "put security high on the agenda for Central Asian states. The focus of these concerns is not energy but an overflow of Islamic fundamentalism."

But Ted Carpenter, vice president of the independent Cato Institute, says energy is clearly a factor: "All of this suggests the so-called Silk Road strategy: trying to establish a zone of U.S. influence that would minimize the influence of Russia and Iran." Overt U.S. interest in a region that Russia has always regarded as its "near abroad" risks a replay of The Great Game, the 19th century contest between Russia and Britain for control of the Central Asian trading routes that carried silk and spices from the Far East to Europe.

With his ferocious pursuit of Muslim rebels in the southern province of Chechnya, Russia's new president, Vladimir Putin, has already reinforced Moscow's determination not to be excluded from a region over which it has historically held sway. And his new foreign policy, approved by the State Security Council two days before his election, demands greater protection for 25 million ethnic Russians who live beyond Russia's borders. "We have to defend in a more active way the interests of our citizens who have chosen to live permanently in other countries," said Putin.

Russia already has troops in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia. Putin and Central Asian leaders talk the same language when it comes to denouncing Islamic fundamentalism. And all fear a Taliban victory in neighboring Afghanistan.

That is why Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, among others, are arming Afghan opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masood, who is still resisting Taliban rule in the northern part of the country. If he is chased out of Afghanistan altogether, he will probably be granted sanctuary and allowed to continue his war from Russia's near abroad.

en lead containers with a size of 70x40x25 centimeters and radioactive substances inside were stopped on the Uzbek-Kazakh border by the Uzbek customs officers and the National Security Service. The containers were carried by an Iranian-made trailer. The cargo was on its way from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan for further shipment to Pakistan via Turkmenistan and Iran. Its destination point was the Pakistani town of Quetta, and the consignee was the Ahmad Khan Haji Mohammad Company, Uzbek official sources, among them Chairman of the State Customs Committee Major-General Saidazim Oripov, told Itar-Tass on Sunday.

The trailer was stopped at the Gisht Kuprik customs post of the Uzbek-Kazakh border, 20 kilometers away from Tashkent, two days ago. Its driver was a national of Iran, Ali Rakhman Najab. The customs declaration described the cargo as stainless metal scrap, and the driver had a certificate of the South Kazakhstan sanitary epidemiological inspection saying that the cargo was not radioactive.

Still, experts of the Uzbek Ministry for Civil Defense and Emergencies noticed that the cargo's gamma emission exceeded the norm by 100 times. A staffer of the Kazakh embassy in Uzbekistan was invited to the place. On Saturday evening the trailer was expelled from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan, bearing in mind the danger.

ussian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev is expected to supervise the Southern Shield of the Commonwealth coalition exercise in southern Tajikistan, local diplomatic sources told Itar-Tass. Sergeyev will arrive in Dushanbe early on Sunday and will at once head for the training area to catch the field firings of the coalition troops, the sources said.

The war games, which involve military units from Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, aim to train interaction between various armed services in operations against large guerrilla gangs. Its first stage involves maps and computers, while the second stage will be held in close-to-combat conditions.

The last stage, which is scheduled for April 4 and 5, will see air defence units of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and other countries put on combat duty. During the visit, Sergeyev will meet his Tajik counterpart Sherali Khairullayev and President Emomali Rakhmonov, the sources added.

ubheading Officers of the Tashkent-Aero specialized customs complex have detained a female passenger on the Tashkent-Chelyabinsk route, a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in the act of trying to illegally traffick drugs.

The head of the Tashkent-Aero specialized customs complex, Sharifjon Egamberdyyev, said that the drug smuggler had been detected "by signs indicating the behaviour of a drug courier". A check using the US Itemiser computer system confirmed the presence of drugs and their type. In all 1,138 grammes of heroin were confiscated from the drug smuggler. Polythene packets containing drugs were stuck to the smuggler's body with adhesive plaster. During the interrogation it was found that the woman had received 1,000 dollars to transport the drugs.

Criminal proceedings were instituted in this case and an investigation is under way. It should be mentioned that this was the 15th attempt at illegal drug trafficking since the beginning of this year which has been nipped in the bud by officers of the Tashkent-Aero specialized customs complex.

urkmenistan and Uzbekistan are getting ready for delimitation of the state border. An agreement to draft a related interstate document was reached in a telephone conversation between Presidents Saparmyrat Niyazov and Islam Karimov on Friday 31st March.

They regard the border delimitation as a necessary condition for strengthening interstate relations and their compliance with international standards, the Turkmen presidential press service reports. The presidents discussed the system of border, customs and public health control currently in effect. The use of water of the Amudarya River, much of which makes the interstate border, is a topical problem in bilateral relations, the presidents said. They noted full mutual understanding on the matter.

ecretary of State Madeleine Albright will visit Central Asia April 14-20, her first trip to the region since she took office, State Department spokesman James Foley said Tuesday. She will visit Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to discuss a broad range of issues including boosting democratic institutions and regional security.

Albright will meet U.S. business representatives, local non-governmental organizations and human and civil rights activists, Foley said in a statement. After visiting Astana, the capital of oil-rich Kazakhstan, and the commercial center Almaty, she will leave for Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital.

The Uzbekistan leg starts in Tashkent and ends in two of Central Asia's oldest cultural centers, Samarkand and Bukhara, Foley said.

resident of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov called President-elect of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulating him on his weekend victory in the presidential election. The leader of Uzbekistan stressed that "Vladimir Putin's convincing victory has a great importance not only for the Russian Federation but also for the international community as a whole," the presidential press service told Itar-Tass on Monday.

During the telephone conversation Vladimir Putin and Islam Karimov expressed their satisfaction with the course of the implementation of the agreements reached at the time of Putin's visit to Tashkent at the end of 1999, "followed by fruitful contacts at different levels." Both sides, the press service noted, stressed that relations of mutual trust and close cooperation would continue to form a reliable basis for interaction between Russia and Uzbekistan.

he Press-Center of the Procurator's Office circulated a report about the arrest of a number of officials of the State Tax Committee, including head of the Samarkand oblast tax department B. Ibraghimov for misusing his authority and taking bribes.

zbekistan Airlines will begin bi-weekly international flights from here from 26th March, the first international airline to have direct link with Europe and America from the holy city of northern Indian state of Punjab, a top official of the airlines said Saturday [25th March].

The Boeing 757 with a capacity of 180 passengers will operate on Sundays and Fridays from Amritsar to Tashkent, having connecting flights from the Uzbek capital to major destinations in Europe, America and the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries, Kanwaljit Singh, general manager, Uzbekistan Airlines told PTI.

Singh said 115 passengers had been booked for the first flight on Sunday from Amritsar airport, the first after Air India terminated its international flights from the city in 1992. He said two sky marshals would be flying in each flight which would also be operating six times a week from Delhi to Tashkent.

slamic terrorism, partly a spillover from Afghanistan, poses a threat in Central Asia, where Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will make her first visit next month, a senior Clinton administration official said.

Terrorist bombings last year in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, and border crossings of armed men from Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan, are among the threats that have surfaced in the region, said Stephen Sestanovich, who heads the State Department's office on Russia and other former Soviet republics.

U.S. concern is focused on an "overflow" of Islamic fundamentalists from Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Sestanovich said at a breakfast meeting with reporters. Albright plans to visit three Central Asian countries next month _ Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan -- to try to promote democracy and opportunities for American business in the area rich in natural resources. The department announced Tuesday that the trip, her first to the region in more than three years in office, will be April 14-20.

The region is the target of foreign developers, including American corporations, trying to get a head start on reserves of natural gas and other energy supplies. Albright will meet with American business leaders as well as promoters of human rights and civil societies in the three former Soviet republics, the statement said.

irector of CIA George Tenet visited the Uzbek capital Tashkent Wednesday, an Uzbek government source said. The source, who asked not to be named, would give no details of Tenet's schedule other than to say it was top secret and that Tenet was due to leave Thursday.

Tenet arrived from the Kazakh capital Astana, where he met President Nursultan Nazarbayev Tuesday. Monday he visited Georgia and held talks with President Eduard Shevardnadze. The U.S. embassy in Tashkent said it was unable to comment.

Georgian government sources said Tenet had discussed the international fight against terrorism in Tbilisi. Tenet's trip will be followed by an official visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan on April 14 to 20.

But Moscow is wary of Washington making inroads in the strategically located and oil-rich Central Asian states, and Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin has said he wants to strengthen Moscow's ties with the region.

The former Soviet countries have moved noticeably closer to Russia in recent months, especially in the face of rising religious extremism, and have touted the need for joint action to counter terrorism across the former Soviet empire. The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Louis Freeh, is also due to visit Kazakhstan next week.

ussian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev is predicting instability in the Central Asian region. "An analysis of the military-political situation in this region suggests that the Central Asian states are in the vanguard of the struggle against international terrorism and religious extremism," Sergeyev told journalists upon his arrival in Astana on Wednesday.

"The extremists' operations on the southern flank of the Commonwealth of Independent States along the curve from the Caucasus to the Pamirs, and their strength and well-coordinated actions require prime attention to joint efforts to deal with this new geo-political challenge," Sergeyev said.

Sergeyev said that "the international terrorist and bandit formations will not stop at merely attempting to destabilize the situation in the Central Asian states and will work persistently to attain their ultimate goal of creating an extremist state entity in their territories."

oint command-post exercises of the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States - CIS Southern Shield 2000 - have begun in Tajikistan and will continue until 3rd April as per the orders of the defence ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The exercises also involve groups from the Armenian and Belarusian defence ministries. The goal of the exercises is to rehearse coordination of security operations and combating terrorist groups, the combined press centre told Interfax.

Live-fire exercises will be held at the Tajik armed forces' Eshak Maidon shooting range. The exercises will be overseen by Lt-Gen Leonid Maltsev, the deputy chief of the headquarters for coordinating military cooperation between the CIS countries.