Министр обороны США Дональд Рамсфелд

Во время своей поездки Рамсфелд намерен посетить Саудовскую Аравию, Оман, Египет и Узбекистан и провести переговоры с их лидерами.

Как отмечают представители американского руководства, намеченные встречи станут продолжением уже проводящихся консультаций. В США считают, что контакты с этими государствами могут быть полезны с учетом их географического положения и текущей международной обстановки.

Между тем, газета Washingtion Post, ссылаясь на источники в правительстве Узбекистана, сообщила, что накануне визита американского министра руководство этой страны разрешило США использовать три узбекских военных аэродрома.

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Как сообщается, перед направленными в Таджикистан и Узбекистан войсками стоит две задачи.

Во-первых, они должны обеспечить безопасность самолетам ВВС США и прочим боевым частям, которые прибудут туда в ближайшем будущем.

Во-вторых, из них будут сформированы "Силы быстрого реагирования", которые будут способны прийти на помощь другим частям США, ведущим боевые действия в Афганистане.

Между тем, по информации РИА "Новости" и руководство Таджикистана, и руководство Узбекистана отрицают появление на их территории американских войск.

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Родители предполагают, что она уехала вместе с цыганским табором в Красноуфимск, – девочка не раз говорила им, что хочет последовать за цыганами. По словам матери, 29 сентября, накануне дня исчезновения, Артихон поссорилась с младшей сестрой. С тех пор ее нигде не видели. В Красноуфимске найти ребенка также пока не удалось.

Правоохранительные органы, занимающиеся поисками маленькой узбечки, не склонны связывать ее исчезновение с появлением в городе очередного маньяка. Скорее всего, ребенка скрывают в таборе.

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На эти средства будет восстановлена и усовершенствована инфраструктура систем водоснабжения, улучшено управление, а также сформирован потенциал местных органов самоуправления для поддержания и функционирования систем обеспечения водой.

АБР также окажет техническое содействие в виде гранта в 600 тыс. долл., которые пойдут на обучение чиновников, а также для усиления мощностей систем водоснабжения.

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Как передает кореспондент РИА "Новости", об этом сообщила в среду газета "Вашингтон пост", которая сослалась при этом на сведения, полученные от "высокопоставленного официального лица в правительстве" Узбекистана.

По словам этого представителя, Узбекистан не будет "открыто говорить" о своем решении. Однако уже предоставленное Соединенным Штатам право на пролет узбекского воздушного пространства распространяется также на военные аэродромы.

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The well-maintained secrecy around military installations in this Central Asian country is just one reason it could offer U.S. forces a safe base to support operations targeting Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.

Uzbekistan is not a place where news travels quickly. For days, national TV replayed the same clip of President Islam Karimov promising to cooperate in the U.S. fight against terrorism. Newspapers are still state-controlled and the KGB lingers on under a different name. Most people look to Russian-language media from Moscow for information that's fresher and less filtered than the homegrown kind.

Police checkpoints are common at city limits and along the roads that snake through the cotton fields and desert hills of the countryside. Military bases are strictly off-limits to journalists without permission from authorities in the capital, Tashkent - permission that was denied despite repeated requests.

At Khanabad, a cluster of radar trucks and larger dishes line the road toward the air base, which is about 125 miles north of the Afghan border. A mural at the entrance depicts a MiG-29 fighter jet thrusting through a blue sky.

But that's the only aircraft to be seen in action in the area. For several hours Monday, no plane engines could be heard at the base, nor any movement seen behind the white concrete wall that encircles the vast complex dotted with airplane hangars.

The same was true at the Kakydi Air Base, about 25 miles north of the Afghan border, where on Monday there were no signs of increased activity or security indicating a possible foreign presence. There, three rusting jets stand guard along the road to the nearby village, where a stand sells counterfeit Coca-Cola.

Secrecy is not the only thing Uzbekistan can offer Washington. Its military is seen as the strongest in the region, with 80,000 active troops, according to a July report by the International Crisis Group, and a well developed infrastructure.

Should American soldiers come to Uzbekistan, they would have to cope with the region's fickle weather. A sandstorm swept across southern Uzbekistan from Afghanistan on Tuesday, blotting out the sky with a fine dust that crept inside buildings despite all efforts to keep it out.

Visibility was cut to a few hundred yards by the storm, which locals call an Afganets - the Russian word for a person from Afghanistan. Flights out of Termez airport near the Afghan border were canceled for the day, and the local bazaar closed early when merchants tired of continuously sweeping the dust off their goods.

Uzbekistan's defense apparatus, like every other institution in the country, is beholden to the authoritarian president, Karimov. He reiterated his nation's backing in the fight against terrorism this week, saying Uzbekistan is ``ready to support the United States and open its airspace for the U.S. air force.''

That invitation contrasts starkly with warnings from Iran, another country bordering Afghanistan. Iran opposes a U.S.-led war on terrorism, and its defense minister has said Iranian planes would ``confront'' American aircraft if they use its airspace for attacks on Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's other neighbors are Pakistan, where the government is cooperating with the United States but Islamic extremists have warned against a U.S. military presence; Tajikistan, which is home to 25,000 Russian troops; and Turkmenistan. China has a tiny, mountainous border with Afghanistan.

Strategically, Uzbekistan has served as a stabilizing anchor in the region.

One of five former Soviet republics in Central Asia, it has taken an independent stance, opting out of a collective security treaty with the Commonwealth of Independent States, a Moscow-led group of former Soviet republics, in 1999. It joined a security organization that includes Russia, China and three other Central Asian countries only in June.

Karimov's insistence on keeping Moscow at an arm's length also gives the United States more freedom to deal directly with Uzbekistan.

Tashkent was one of the first Central Asian capitals to express support for the United States following the attacks. Ethnic Uzbeks make up a strong component of a contingent of Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance that is commanded by Rashid Dostum, himself an Uzbek.

However, Uzbekistan has tried so far to avoid getting pulled into the Afghan fighting and kept its border to the country tightly shut - including the single bridge that crosses the Amu-Darya River and leads to a key Taliban stronghold in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Instead, Uzbekistan has been fighting its own homegrown extremist movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. President Bush singled out the movement as a group allied with the al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

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here is no real independent news in Uzbekistan - you take and believe what you can from state television and radio.

It reports events, but it is coy about the government's involvement in them. This country is 80% Muslim and it is landlocked by at least two countries on every side.

It needs its neighbours and it needs its Muslim friends. America is not a natural ally.

Professor Guga Hidoyatov, a political adviser to the Uzbekistan foreign ministry, says prejudice against Americans is common for all Asian peoples. The reality is that America is less of an enemy than the Taleban.

American support is actually a relief - but only if it succeeds in getting rid of the Taleban, according to journalist and former MP Karim Bekhriev.

'Big problem'

"It is and it will be a big problem for Uzbekistan if Uzbekistan openly supports America," he said.

"If America fights the people of Afghanistan not the terrorists, then Afghanistan will never forgive Uzbekistan."

A series of car bombs in Tashkent in 1999 were said to be the work of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), cited by President Bush as a terrorist organisation.

Its leader is a senior Taleban commander.

Tashkent, with its wide Soviet streets, its grim Soviet town planning and its desert dust feels more Soviet than Islamic, but there are seeds of religious fanaticism with the potential to germinate.

"There are supporters," says Mr Hidoyatov. "In Uzbekistan, there were over 3,000 people jailed for their sympathies to the IMU and probably they and their families are not very happy with the government.

"Since we have all these demographical and economic problems, the Taleban may think that there are lots of people who are not happy with what they have in Uzbekistan."

Inviting route

But there is another reason for Uzbekistan to want the Taleban out of power - it needs access to the sea.

At the moment that route is through Russia to the north - subject to its political whims and potential economic blackmail.

A far more inviting route lies to the south.

Mr Hidoyatov says: "All other railways go through Asia. But we have another possibility - the railway through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. For this it is necessary to construct the railway.

"Without removing the Taleban it is very difficult to change anything in Afghanistan.

"It is our main task now and I think it is in our interest to liquidate the Taleban."

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Officers of the criminal investigation and anti-terrorism department conducted an operation along indirect routes in Tashkent District on 28 September this year. The behaviour of several women en route to Kazakhstan - Himoyat Ergasheva, Hafiza Nurmatova, Sanobar Mominova, Mukhtaram Ergasheva and Dilfuza Soliyeva - evoked their suspicion. When they were body-searched, almost two kilos of pure heroin was found carefully hidden inside their shoes, which was also supported by forensic examination.

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На 27 сентября в республике собрано более 2 миллионов 712 тысяч тонн хлопка, что на 630 тысяч больше по сравнению с аналогичным периодом 2000 года.

Вместе с тем, в ряде областей и районов не полностью используются имеющиеся возможности по выполнению специального постановления Кабинета Министров, а также выполнения заданий селекторного совещания, состоявшегося 20 сентября по организации уборочной страды.

Низкая эффективность труда сборщиков хлопка отмечается в Каракалпакстане, Самаркандской, Сурхандарьинской и Ферганской областях, где на сборщика приходится всего по 15-22 кг ежедневно.

В текущем году намечалось использовать всего 977 уборочных машин, в том числе 673 "Кейс"ов. Однако задание по машинной уборке хлопка по республике пока составило всего 22,6%.

Предприятием "УзКейссервис", компанией "Узкишлокхужаликмашхолдинг", ассоциацией "Узагромашсервис" несвоевременно выполняется сервисное обслуживание хлопкоуборочных машин. Ежедневная производительность машин "Кейс" в Кашкадарьинской, Сырдарьинской и Джизакской областях составляет всего 3-4 тонны, в Ташкентской области - 6-7 тонн.

Чтобы успеть убрать урожай до наступления ненастья, надо мобилизовать все имеющиеся резервы, отмечалось на заседании.

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