Uzbekistan to ban some NATO overflights - alliance

Reuters November 23 Uzbekistan has told European members of NATO they will not be able to use its airspace or territory for operations linked to peacekeeping in neighbouring Afghanistan, an alliance official said on Wednesday. The official said he understood the ban was to be applied from Jan. 1 in response to a recent European Union decicion to impose visa bans on 12 top Uzbek officials and an arms embargo on the central Asian state over the deaths of up to 500 people in May. "NATO itself has not been notified of this but individual European nations have," the NATO official told a briefing, speaking on a customary basis of anonymity. A ban would primarily affect Germany, which has been using Uzbekistan for logistical and air support. "Germany is the country most affected, but alternative arrangements are possible. There will be no diminishment of our capacity to support ISAF," the official said, referring to the 9,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. The Uzbek move comes as NATO is seeking to expand its Afghan presence from the north, west and capital Kabul into the more dangerous south.