he excellent state of bilateral relations between Italy and Uzbekistan was underlined by Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini and his Uzbek counterpart, Abdulaziz Komilov, on the occasion of a brief meeting which they have held in Tashkent, where Dini stopped off on his return journey to Rome from the official visit which he has been making in the last few days to China.

In the course of their talks, Dini and Komilov mainly discussed problems linked to Afghanistan. In particular, Komilov expressed the "full support" of Uzbekistan and of all the countries in Central Asia for the steps which Italy is taking with the aim of trying to achieve reconciliation between the various forces present in Afghanistan. These steps revolve around the presence in Rome, for many years now, of the exiled Afghan king, Zaher Shah.

Still on the subject of Afghanistan, the two ministers also stressed the need to combat the trafficking in drugs which originates from this country.

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he Uzbek Internal Affairs Ministry is constantly seeking new ways and methods of combating crime, in particular terrorism, drugs trafficking and arms smuggling. The dog training service helps the police a great deal in this.

The dogs are of a pretty serious pedigree. They and their parents are in the service of the police and are subsidized by the Interior Ministry agencies. Sometimes many crimes are solved with the help of dogs immediately after they have been committed. About 2,000 crimes have been committed this year. It is quite possible that this figure might increase in future.

Uzbekistan's Cabinet of Ministers has issued a resolution to further develop the service dog training facilities in our country, which envisages not only building new dog training centres but training specialist dog handlers and sniffer dogs capable of detecting explosives, drugs and reacting rapidly to a shot, saving the handler from the criminal's bullet.

Toshmuhamedov, head of the Interior Ministry department for maintaining public order: "Dog breeding kennels have been set up in all Regions and managers appointed. A lot of issues concerning their financing are currently being tackled. We have also learnt from the experience of the Khorezm Region on this matter."

Representatives from all Regions of Uzbekistan who attended the seminar saw a high level of military training and thoroughly developed techniques to wipe out terrorists in totally different circumstances.

Those taking part in the seminar demonstrated perfect actions and skills and readiness to fight against terrorism. Many were presented with certificates and valuable gifts.

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escuers from the Ministry for Emergency Situations of Tajikistan continue looking for the fourth day in succession for four people whose car was buried under snow as an avalanche swept down the Anzob mountain pass.

First Deputy Minister for Emergency Situations of Tajikistan Abdurakhim Rajabov told Itar-Tass that after twenty men were engaged in the search but the group was expected to send detail information about their efforts to Dushanbe only on Thursday afternoon.

The car overtaken by the avalanche was carrying a national television employee and his relations. It is not yet clear why they had chosen to travel from Dushanbe to Tashkent via the Anzob mountain pass (3,373 metres above the sea level) since all traffic on that road had been officially closed on December 5.

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