Agence France Presse
September 30

The United States renewed a five-month-old alert warning US citizens that extreme Islamic "terrorists" may be plotting attacks on hotels used by Westerners and other "soft targets" in Uzbekistan.

The warning replaced without change an existing April 5 alert that had been due to expire on Wednesday, the State Department said.

"US citizens should evaluate carefully the implications for their security and safety before deciding to travel to Uzbekistan," it said in the notice.

"The US government has received information that terrorists may be planning attacks against hotels in Uzbekistan frequented by Westerners," the department said.

Supporters of extremist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaeda network and the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement remain active in the region and could target US interests there, it said.

"These groups have expressed anti-US sentiments and may attempt to target US government or private interests in Uzbekistan," it said, advising Americans to increase their vigilance and, if possible, avoid locations frequented by Westerners.

IMU militants, believed to have been supported and trained by al-Qaeda, attacked Uzbekistan's southern border in 2000 and are blamed for bomb blasts in Tashkent in 1999 aimed at destabilizing Uzbek President Islam Karimov's secular government.

The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement is a Uighur extremist movement based in China's far-western Xinjiang province. It was designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department last year.

The group, which allegedly has links to al-Qaeda, is blamed for bombing buses, movie theaters, department stores and hotels in the region and, according to US officials, has components in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and other central Asian states.

Karimov has lent support to the US war on Iraq (news - web sites), despite skepticism over his stance among the people of his country.

Karimov's hard-line secular state is part of the US "coalition of the willing" to attack Iraq and hosts US forces at its Khanabad air base.

The president keeps tight control on the country's media and has been widely criticized for using torture and indiscriminate imprisonment to stifle his opponents.

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