zbekistan's national carrier Uzbekiston Khavo Yollary plans to buy two more Boeing-767 aircraft by 2002, company director Arslan Ruzmetov said on Friday.

"The aircraft will be delivered in 2002, the contract will be signed next year," Ruzmetov told reporters, adding that the cost of the deal was estimated at $150-$160 million.

The airline has 11 Western aircraft at present, including two Boeing 767s, three Boeing-757s, three Airbus A-310s and three British-French RG-85 planes.

The company said earlier this year that it would soon need 10 to 15 large aircraft to replace ageing Soviet aircraft which it inherited after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Ruzmetov said the airline had received a total of $1.1 billion in foreign credits to update its fleet and flight infrastructure. (Reuters, November 10)

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he Kazakhstan parliament, worried by the threat of fundamentalist Islamic rebels in central Asia, agreed to offer the country's armed forces to maintain peace in neighbouring countries if asked by their presidents. Parliament agreed to the government proposal after Defence Minister Sat Tokpakbayev told the house late on Thursday that it was vital to combat international terrorism which with drug trafficking is one of the plagues of Central Asia.

"The activity of international terrorist forces has taken on a permanent character and we must always be ready to give our closest neighbours military help...this is in line with the interests of Kazakhstan's national security," Tokpakbayev said.

The five newly independent states of Central Asia, which are largely secular after 70 years of Soviet rule, are deeply fearful of the possible spread of Islamic fundamentalism.

They particularly fear Afghanistan, which is 95 percent controlled by the radical Islamic Taleban militia. Afghanistan borders three former Soviet states, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Groups of armed rebels invaded Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan several times during the summer and dozens were killed on both sides as they fought government troops.

Central Asian governments say the insurgents were based in Tajikistan and funded by the Taleban, a charge denied by both.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev suggested earlier this year that members of a Collective Security Agreement, uniting Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Belarus and Armenia, should form a joint rapid reaction force by next summer. (Reuters, November 10)

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erman businessmen plan to invest 250m dollars in a joint project with Uzbekistan to build a major textiles factory in the eastern Uzbek town of Namangan, the Uzbek newspaper 'Khalq Sozi' reported on 10th November.

The factory has been founded and construction will soon begin. Once completed, the factory will operate at an annual production capacity of 22,620 tonnes of yarn, and about 10,000 jobs will be created, the newspaper report said, adding that it will also export part of its output.

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n order to make sensible use of land and water resources and in the context of expected water shortages in 2001, the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan has resolved to adopt a proposal by the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, the Cabinet of Ministers of Karakalpakistan and the administrations of Surkhandarya, Tashkent and Khorezm Regions on the additional sowing of grain for next year's harvest. The overall area sown to cereals will be 1,204,000 ha next year. Taking into account the additional sown areas, the gross yield of grain is forecast at more than 4,157,000 tonnes in 2001.

Karakalpakistan, Khorezm and Tashkent Regions are instructed to increase the areas sown to cereals by reducing the areas intended for rice, and in Surkhandarya Region by reducing the areas intended for other crops.

In accordance with the government resolution, 3,500 t of grain crop seed for irrigated land are to be allocated from state resources. Moreover, the seeds will be sold to farms after the necessary treatment.

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olice in Pendzhikent, Tajikistan, bordering on Uzbekistan, detained in the past day at a checkpoint a truck in which two bales with narcotics were discovered. They contained about 60 kilograms of heroin and over 70 kilograms of raw opium.

The truck loaded with coal covering bales with drugs was on the way from Tajikistan's southern Khatlon district, Tass learnt on Thursday from the Tajik Interior Ministry's agency from combatting illicit drug traffic.

Contraband narcotics were planned to be carried to the Russian territory and sold there.

The driver was arrested. A lawsuit was brought. (Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, November 9)

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