1. New ambassadors present credentials to President Karimov

2. Parliamentary delegation from Hungary in Tashkent

3. Czech Premier's visit to Uzbekistan yields first results

4. President's speech at Parliament

5. Uzbek Customs seize Russia-bound heroin

6. NATO summit in Washington

7. Japan Minister to visit Balkans, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan

8. Uzbekistan may join GUAM

9. President Karimov receives a WTO award

Karimov outlined five major priorities: further liberalization of political and economic life; spirituality in society; training of experts; raising people's living standards, and interethnic accord in society. He called for development of the political parties, saying of Uzbekistan's "five or six parties" that "you cannot tell some of them apart". On the economy, Karimov called for liberalization of the currency system and the market, adding that the main way to ensure investment in the country was to solve "the problem of turning our national currency completely into a freely convertible currency in the year 2000 and solved the problem of its convertibility by expanding and developing the non-exchange market". The following are excerpts from an expanded report on the president's speech by Uzbek TV on 15th April, incorporating excerpts released from a shorter report (Uzbek Radio first programme, Tashkent, in Uzbek 0900 gmt 14 Apr 99 "Uzbek head tells parliament five priority areas of development".

Note that this version is a fuller version than that in Uzbek Radio first programme, Tashkent, in Uzbek 1030 gmt 14 Apr 99, "Uzbek head speaks on a professional army, political parties"):

[Presenter] The 14th session of the Supreme Assembly of the first convocation started its work in Tashkent today [14th April]. President Islam Karimov delivered a speech at the morning sitting of the session. Now we call your attention to our president's speech.

[Uzbek President Islam Karimov, video shows him approaching and at rostrum] Respected deputies, dear compatriots. Each passing day brings us closer to the 21st century. [passage omitted: Karimov on Uzbekistan's recent history: Uzbekistan's status during the Soviet Union, on "great achievements" Uzbekistan has gained during the independence years]

Dear compatriots. I think you will endorse my thoughts that the tragic events which happened in Tashkent in February [16th February explosions] this year [1999] have opened our eyes to many things. From our harsh experience we are reiterating again and again that there are real dangers to Uzbekistan's independence. The purpose of such intrigues is an attempt to destroy political and social stability, civil and interethnic accord in the country. In other words, the purpose is to destroy our people's striving to build a prosperous life, to destroy the foundation on which our good deeds for phased development and intergrating the world community are based. Speaking about the main reasons for those tragic events, I would like to draw your attention to two obvious factors of threat.

First. Dogmatic and aggressive forces from outside the country, making use of the fact that the religion of Islam is a sacred value for our people, are trying to derail Uzbekistan from the path of democratic and cultural development. This is the truth. We can not hide this anywhere. Second. The second threat. The second danger. We should not forget that there are still forces which envy our independence, and which are trying under various pretexts to introduce their policies into Uzbekistan and rule there. These are two dangers, two threats. If I am asked what were the main reasons for the tragic events on 16th February, I would have separately stressed these two points. I would say we know the perpetrators, we will definitely arrest them and try and punish them. We know who the organizers were. But it is very complicated issue to speak about what evil force is standing behind this. Nobody can be caught red-handed. But summoning all my soul, consciousness and wisdom, I would like to say to you from this tribune that while these two threats exist, we would always feel these threats in building our future. The first reason is the religion of Islam which is sacred for us: using this as a camouflage they are trying to mislead our people, our youth, our own children, the young people of our motherland whose belief is weak.

I think that there is a need once more to analyse the second reason. You know, Uzbekistan is becoming powerful, Uzbekistan has its own foreign policy, building its great future, today we are proving that the Uzbek nation can take its worthy place in the world as a whole; various countries and various evil forces envy all this and trying to impede us. We should tell this truth to our people. All our people, from seven to 70 years of age, must realize this. I think we should tell our people and society openly about this. We know that there are various rumours and things like this going around among the population and society. But it is these two threats which are creating everything. While these two threats exist there will be attempts to mislead our children, to poison their consciousness, to turn them into the enemies of their own motherland, to turn them into evil forces. Some would understand this and some would not.

I would like to take the opportunity to note once again that if anyone at present has plans to mislead us, to destroy peace and stability in our families, let him know that it is too late now as time for attempts to exert pressure, to assassinate the leader of the country by means of organizing destruction, explosions and terrorist acts, to destroy our lives and to divert us from our purposes. The time for this has gone. It is impossible to turn back history. [passage omitted: our people, foreign partners support our policy and reforms]

Any state and society which clearly sees ahead to its future will first and foremost define its principal tasks. It should ask the following questions: What shall I do? How can we continue the reforms we started yesterday? How can we bring it to its conclusion? And what plans should we set ourselves in order to be successful? We should clearly define the priority fields in our plans. That is I should like to take advantage of this occasion to draw your attention to the five main areas of development.

The first area. The first fundamental direction is further liberalizat ion of the country's political and economic life, state and public construction. What do we understand when we say erkinlashtirish [In English: making free - liberalization]? We might explain the meaning of this word not in Russian but in another language, it is the word liberalization. When we say liberalization, for the time being, based on my knowledge, I would call it erkinlashtirish. We often use words like erk [freedom] and erkin [free]. We have people and friends whose names are Erkin. But when we say erkinlashtirish, I do not know whether this word means everything which the word liberalization means, our scholars will have to express their views on this. But I would like to say once again that we should make all the spheres of our lives more free, we should make our lives more free. To say why, freedom, freedom and once again freedom should be the ground for our achievements in the future.

When we assess the process of reforms and renovation in Uzbekistan I would like to say that the ways of liberalizing all aspects of our lives, in line with its essence and significance, have become the main linking point in all the changes being carried out in our country. But at the same time, it is natural that we consider the present process of liberalization and the results of democratization of our society as an initial phase achieved on this path. Proceeding from this we should introduce sharp changes in all the sectors of our lives, above all in the political sphere, in state construction and administration, making the economy more free and deepening democratic reforms.

The second fundamental direction consists of further improving the society's spirituality. When we speak about spirituality, above all, I understand it to mean a power which calls on people to purify themselves spiritually, to develop their inner selves and to strengthen their belief. The issue of creating spirituality for a free citizen and a free East is the most topical task for us. To put it in another way, it is our duty to educate people who are free and perfectly developed and who know their rights, who rely on their own power and possibilities, who independently approach the events taking place around them, at the same time who see their private interests in harmony with the interests of the country and people.

Third fundamental direction is the problem of experts. No matter what tasks we set ourselves, what problems we have to solve, in every case the solution of the problem will rest with experts. We may say without exaggeration that our future and the future of our country depend on who replaces us, or in other words, on what experts we train.

The fourth fundamental direction involves a phased and stable improvement of people's living standards, further reinforcement of the social protection of the population. On this fourth principle, I must say once again that in seven years we have carried out a great deal of work, we have laid foundations and built a lot of magnificent buildings, we have built thousands of enterprises, plants and factories which bring an income and products for us, which provide our people with jobs and which can produce goods which are competitive world wide. We have increased the number of people involved in small- and medium-sized businesses. We have opened all the channels for the development of entrepreneurship. Now tell me, for what purpose have we done all this? Above all, above all and once again, [we have implemented all this] in order to improve people's lives, to improve their living standards. My dream is to raise our people's living standards to the level of people's living standards in Europe. I repeat this and repeat that all this is my life's dream. We will definitely reach this.

There can be a great deal of discussion on this matter. But I would like to repeat that if an individual and the nation do not set themselves such a noble goal then they are living without a mission in life. I think an individual is certainly born with a hope. If every individual does not set some definite goals for himself, if he does not try to attain his noble goals, or if he does not learn or get education then I do not know what his purpose in life is. Therefore, every nation, take for example Korea and Japan or other countries, if you look at what they have achieved in the past 50 years and ask what is their secret, I would say that it was not natural resources or mineral and raw material resources, although they are also essential. But what does Japan have? Does it have any undergound resources? I suggest that you look through these books [on Japan?] again. Japan does not have anything [meaning minerals and raw materials] and imports everything. But Japan takes second place in the world. I believe Japan will make further achievements in the 21st century. Take, for example, Korea and others. If you ask me what their achievements can be put down to, my answer would be that it is the willpower of that nation. They work together in such a way that each and every one of them regardless of their age or status spares no effort to attain their goal. Their personal problems come second to this.

That is, the nation must unite. A national ideology should unite people. An Uzbek saying goes: like one body and soul. What is the meaning of it? If need be, society should be prepared to sacrifice itself for one cause. These are not just empty words. You will see, if we work for the next five or 10 years in the way I have just described then we will certainly attain our goal and no one will be a match for us. [a round of applause]

The fifth priority area is that interethnic accord in society, stability and peace, the territorial integrity of our country and the inviolability of our borders should be maintained. I would like to reaffirm that Uzbekistan does not interfere in other states' internal affairs, that it is for the development of international cooperation, that it wants to build partnership with other countries on an equal footing and that it is for settling all sorts of conflicts or disputes only through peaceful political and lawful means. But the situation in the region and other parts of the world has become complicated, and therefore a need has arisen to create a system of security that can adequately respond to forces that may pose a threat to Uzbekistan's sovereignty, stability and steady development. Only by carrying out these tasks can we achieve prosperity and a just life. And then we will have our rightful place and prestige in the world community.

[passage omitted: we should learn to live abiding by the law; criticism of former CPSU and Soviet mentality] Uzbek people have a saying which means that a horse should not follow the cart, it should be ahead of the cart and draw it . Or, the locomotive should be ahead of the carriages, not behind them. That is why legislation should take the lead in our everyday lives. Am I right or not? We will adopt a law on leasing at this session. But tell me, when was leasing introduced in Uzbekistan? It was introduced two years ago. We are buying tractors and harvesters from the [US] Case company on leasing terms. This is one example. But the Supreme Assembly is adopting the law on leasing in April 1999. Is this correct? Is the life going ahead or legislation? This is a very serious issue, too.

We have to mention again and again that our people's political energy is still slow and do not meet modern requirements. We have to recognize that we still can not get rid of old styles of doing things. All important decisions are being adopted from upon high and we have become obedient executors, sometimes victims, I say victims of decisions which have been adopted without being properly thought through. The process of getting rid of the diseases of a despotic and administrative system is proceeding with great difficulty. [passage omitted: we should raise people's legal awareness; there are officials in Districts and settlements who abuse their powers; it would be good if the public was active] The process of making society more democratic involves strengthening and developing political institutions, parties, nongovernmental and public organizations. Let us talk about parties. There has been a great deal of talk about the inability of political parties and movements to take a worthy place in the political, economic or spiritual life of our country. I think this criticism is fair, absolutely. If political parties and public organizations are to strive to take seats in the system of government, first of all in elective government agencies, then they must have definite aims and plans of action. And the implementation of these plans must be conducive to positive changes in the country. Therefore, if something is called a party then its leaders and supporters must know exactly what they are trying to achieve and what they are struggling against. If a party does not have clearly defined goals, if members of that party do not know why they joined it, then it is no good. We have five or six parties. Can you really tell them from one another? I have to speak candidly as foreign guests are also present here. Tell me if you can tell the difference between them. If you look at their main goals, the ways of achieving them and the path they have chosen or their main principles and issues they have set before themselves, I repeat these questions: what are they struggling for, who do they rely on and what or who are they opposed to. If a party does not strive for power then it is not a political party but some kind of social organization. A party should strive to take a place in the government, to occupy posts, that is power, and first of all seats in elective establishments. The main aim of parties is to take seats in the parliament. Which party takes more seats determines what kind of government will be formed.

The situation in the provinces, in Regions, is similar to this [in the centre] [passage omitted: nongovernmental organizations play a role in society, women's role in society should be focussed upon]

Working with young people requires special attention. We should always remember that young people are our future, we should pay attention to their education, their spiritual upbringing and try to know their stance on life [passage omitted: we should pay more attention to our children] Every day we go to and come from our work, we worry about small things, we dispute and quarrel in our everyday life. But our main task is to be vigilant because our children are growing. Each year they grow. We, ourselves, should understand how yesterday's boy becomes today's impressionable young man. We fail to grasp this. For us a 16-year-old boy is a baby. God bless you, it should not be like that. Life is bitter. How will a youth who has just left the bosom of his parents, embark upon life? Whom will he follow? Together with whom will he try to achieve his goals?

How I can bring this home to you? How I can appeal to you? The future of our society and of Uzbekistan depends on this. [passage omitted: we should pay more attention to our children] We have been greatly worried by the fact that most of the perpetrators of the tragic events on 16th February were young people. As a result of our complacent indifference and shortcomings in our work, these young people came under the influence of criminal groups and religious extremists. This sin of ours is unforgivable. This shows that there are shortcomings, above all, in the political and social spheres, that there are great shortcomings in the work of young organizations and neighbourhood councils. I am forced to say that officials of all levels in government bodies and social organizations are to blame for that. I demand from governors sitting here, district governors and regional governors, I strictly demand that at least once a week you must visit schools! I want nothing else. Once a week you must visit schools, educational establishments, in order to know how children and teachers are doing there, what kind of teachers are teaching the children. I am forced to demand this from this rostrum. [passage omitted: school children are more important than cattle and cotton] Dear deputies, a state administration system has been formed in our country. [pasage omitted: this system should work for people's interests] Let us ask ourselves a question. How efficient is the work of this system? How is each link of this system fulfilling the tasks and duties placed on them? Nepotism, negligence towards their tasks and bribe-taking bribes are greatly damaging this system. [passage omitted: to eliminate these shortcomings, Uzbekistan should bring its state administration system in line with western ones, pay more attention to staff training, public associations and people's deputies should monitor the activities of the executive bodies] Let us take for example our country's parliament. Unlike other countries, under our constitution, parliament elects, on the president's proposal, not only the prime minister but all the members of parliament. But a question arises here. Do government members sense that parliament is in fact monitoring their activities? Unfortunately the same situation applies in the localities. [passage omitted: deputies should monitor the activities of the authorities]

We have 14 regional governors sitting here, including [the head of the Uzbek constitutent republic of] Karakalpakistan. How many times have they reported back to the deputies, in 1999 or in 1998? When I say report I mean something different, not only general things - cotton targets, meat, milk or construction targets. Here I mean a report about how he is exercising his powers, his morality, how he is running his family. Why does he not report back to deputies about that? Why should the children of a governor, two of his sons, go only to England for study? Do you think ordinary people do not see this? At whose expense are they studying there? A certain company in Khorezm [northwestern Uzbekistan] arranged everything and has sent his sons [to England] When a boy comes from there he would be appointed to head a major company right away, under the age of 30. This would apply to other governors sitting here, too. What will be the outcome? Is it just? Am I right? Why are you sitting silent? [Karimov chuckles] This criticism from me is right. This is life. [passage omitted: governors should be a model for others; Karimov on the role of local neighbourhoods; reforms in judicial system, judgers should be independent and act in accordance with law] We talk a great deal about mass media agencies but we should make them free and independent. They should rightly be the fourth estate. We should increase the status of the mass media agencies as a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of existing laws and legislation, public control, as a mechanism monitoring the activities of government and senior officials. The mass media agencies should be a free tribune giving opportunities to everyone to express their opinions. The mass media agencies should protect democratic values and concepts in our society and should take an active part in creating people' political rights and economic awareness. [passage omitted: media workers should be well-educated, have enough knowledge to conduct good interviews, journalistic departments are currently open for all people of various professions]

Now about citizens' rights. We talk a great deal about this. Recently this issue is at the focus of our attention. Here I have some proposals in order to deepen this process and bring it in line with European standards, with the standards of developed countries. What we should do?

First, we need to draw up a national programme in the sphere of human rights, set up a whole system of human rights institutions and step up cooperation with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international organizations on developing the human factor and human rights organizations and the media.

Second, we need to continue our work to sign up to fundamental agreements in the sphere of human rights. However, the point is not only that we should sign up to these agreements. There is a different point here. We should not only sign up to the new international agreements, but we need also to work out legally the mechanisms to ensure that all commitments in these declarations we sign up to will be met and organizations, officials and citizens will meet the requirements of these declarations without fail. Third, we must without fail develop a legislative foundation according to which people may appeal to the executive bodies, step up the responsibility of state agencies to consider people's appeals impartially and in good time and, from this point of view, we must adopt a law on the procedure for considering the people's complaints and appeals. Now let us turn to economic matters. The main and immediate task in this sphere is to solve completely the question of setting up a class of owners. In other words, we should carry out the task we have been set of creating a diversified economy with private ownership in first place, and of strengthening relations between business structures and finance, bank and other market structures. Absolutely the most important thing is that existing obstacles to obtaining credits should be removed and that business structures should be given ample opportunities. It is necessary to set up a system which will guarantee that goods produced by them will be sold both in the domestic market and abroad. We should double the number of small and private enterprises in the next two to three years and we should bring it about that their share in the gross domestic product is at least 25 per cent.

Secondly, the liberalization of the economy is directly dependent on the creation of real conditions of competition. The market economy cannot be set up without competition. Competition is the main factor of the market and it can be described as its law. Well, what must we do to improve the situation in this sphere? Above all, the antimonopoly law should be tightened up and practical measures adopted to reduce the number of and then do away with monopolist structures. A law on natural monopolies should be adopted and measures aimed at increasing the consumers' rights should be drawn up. Third. In talking about the liberalization of economy, I have to speak repeatedly about the necessity to develop the market structure and the activity of the financial and banking system. We cannot open up our economy and, most importantly, to put it briefly, we will not be able to turn it into a real market economy unless a diversified market structure, funds, wholesale markets, stock markets, credit and financial institutions, leasing and consulting companies and other structures which should serve businessmen are set up in the true sense of the word and unless they operate at full capacity.

Fourth. The entire system of organization of foreign economic activity should be radically revised. I think this sphere, the management of this sphere, has become too bureaucratic. Management by administrative restrictions, rather than by economic prescription, prevails in this sphere. We must go over to world standards of foreign economic activity as soon as possible and try to join the World Trade Organization. Fifth. The currency system and the market should be liberalized. It is time we solved the problem of turning our national currency completely into a freely convertible currency in the year 2000 and solved the problem of its convertibility by expanding and developing the non-exchange market and stepping up the role and responsibility of commercial banks. This measure is main guarantee for increasing investments into our republic.

Six. The liberalization of the economy depends on reducing unjustified intereference by state and other various inspection and supervisory bodies. Specific resolutions sharply reducing the number of checks and audits have been adopted. Today it will be necessary to punish severely the people who have not given up the idea of unlawful interference in the production activities of enterprises. [Passage omitted: decree issued] In line with this order, and the law based upon it, commercial organizations are to be checked only once in a year. [passage omitted: more about needless checkings of activities of commercial organizations].

And the last issue. Respected people's deputies, I would like to draw your attention to the step-by-step and profound reform of the republic's armed forces, border troops and internal troops which is being carried out as unified state policy. What is the essence of reforming the army? First. Analysis of the existing and potential threats in the defence field points to the necessity to form mobile, efficient and well-equipped armed forces which are capable of effectively and reliably protecting peace and stability in our country. To this end, a decision has been taken to create military administrative units, military districts, on the territory of our country. Our armed forces' units and divisions are being redeployed. This will all make it possible to considerably increase the efficiency of managing the troops, concentrate them in the most important strategic fields and to form an efficient system of territorial defence.

Together with that, we should considerably downsize the armed forces. I would like to repeat, we will downsize our armed forces. This is not a simple measure or superficial process, these are purposeful and well-thought-out plans. The funds ontained by cutting manpower will be allocated to increase the wages of servicemen serving on a contract basis and to increase benefits for their families. That will make it possible to increase the number of this kind of servicemen. Serving in the army should be a prestigious and glorious job for our sons not just in words alone but in fact. I would like once again to address our young people and say in simple words: in the near future there will be servicemen who will serve on a contract basis. We even have them now but we will increase their number. [passage omitted: Karimov explains what a professional army is] Above all, we need a professional army. That is, servicemen who know their profession well, who are ready to use their breasts as a shield, to give their lives. But we should pay, pay and again I say, pay them. Second. We are setting ourselves the task of radically changing the organizational and management structure of the armed forces starting from the lower ranks and going right to the upper echelons, using the experience gathered in advanced countries and armies.

Third. The reform envisages a review of the whole system of organizing the spiritual and moral upbringing of servicemen, their professional and further training. It should be focused on instilling qualities in servicemen such as patriotism, love and loyalty to the homeland, high morality and will, professionalism and perfect combat training. Lately I have spoken with many servicemen, mostly with officers, colonels and other top military. I should say frankly that if there are any survivals of the old Soviet times, then you will clearly see them in the army. You may or may not believe me, but sometimes I spend up to three hours talking with them. I try to find out what is happening in their hearts. What is the aim of your service? Whom are you protecting? How would you behave if tomorrow the fate of our country were in the balance? Whom are you defending today? For the sake of whom are you ready to use your breast as a shield? In general, will be you a defender? [Karimov addresses the audience] Are you with me? Will you be a defender, or are you working for the sake of a pension? You know the size of the pension a colonel gets when he retires. What I need are young and energetic people, capable of crushing a mountain. They may not to start with be not so professional from the military point of view. But what I need are servicemen and officers who are ready to give their lives for the homeland. Am I right? [applause] Unfortunately, training such officers is a difficult problem. All our senior officers graduated from [military] schools in Moscow. I ask them: What did they teach you there? What did you learn from them? How has this affected your inner, spiritual life? Their answers do not satisfy me. In many cases it is not their fault. The education they received in such conditions is currently a big problem. Currently I am ready to appoint our own lads, our own young men, to such posts, but they have to prove their worth. I believe I need five years, we will create such an army and others will look at it with envy. [applause]

This is not a secret. In conjunction with developed countries we are doing a great deal of work to achieve this. I am talking about this openly in order to prevent all kinds of rumours. We are currently conducting very important talks, we are doing a great deal of work to study the experience accumulated in these countries. In general we are thinking about the way how to build our army, what kind of new army it should be, what kinds of units we need to protect our soil. We are considering anew all these issues. Let anyone who deserts from the army know, we will create battalions such as will be able to find you even underground. We will pull you out and drag you along [applause] We have might enough. [passage omitted: the army should be properly re-equipped, Uzbekistan is taking measures to strengthen its borders] By strengthening our borders we are not trying to barrier ourselves from the external world. Uzbekistan is interested in developing frirendly relations with all neighbouring countries, creating common trade zones, developing transport communications. We are open to people with pure intentions, sound ideas and to scientific, cultural and humanitarian links. At the same time, as a sovereign country and proceeding from our national interests, we have a right to and are forced to take necessary measures to firmly protect and guard our borders.

Profound systemic reforms are also envisaged to be carried out in the Internal Affairs Ministry's structure. We have revised the tasks, structures and functions of the internal troops. We are taking measures to considerably increase their material and technical basis. We are also currently working at improving subdivisions which would ensure traffic safety, public order and the security of citizens. The results of these reforms should be a system of internal affairs which will reliably protect citizens and the society from such criminal activities as terrorism, sabotage, all forms of extremism and organized crime. The internal affairs bodies should be a reliable guarantor for protecting people's rights and freedoms, public order and the security of citizens.

Implementation of the state policy for reforming the army, border and internal troops is not a manifestation of any kind of aggresssiveness by Uzbekistan. All these steps have been taken with the sole purpose of creating conditions for conducting social, economic and political reforms, building a democratic society and a state based on law, and ensuring a peaceful life and creative work for our people. [passage to end omitted: Uzbekistan should befittingly meet the 21st century]

Source: Uzbek Television first channel, Tashkent, in Uzbek 1615 gmt 15 Apr 99

Islam Karimov and Francesco Frangialli discussed pending projects to develop the Great Silk Road. Mr. Frangialli gave the Uzbek President a WTO award for his international project to revive trade routes along the Silk Road.

The visit of the WTO Secretary General took place after Uzbekistan adopted a decree on the State program to develop tourism in Uzbekistan before the year 2005. The new decree opens up many possibilities for the tourism industry in Uzbekistan, which as many analysts have confirmed, has a huge potential in attracting travelers from around the globe. The decree envisages a 3-year exemption of all tourist firms from custom duties. All branches of the national company Uzbektourism, are allowed to charge foreign tourists in hard currency as well as in local currency-the soum. It will boost the flow of foreign cash, which is badly needed for the reconstruction of tourist sites and attractions throughout Uzbekistan.

Mr. Frangially participated in the 34th session WTO's European Commission in Samarkand. In this ancient city the WTO delegation saw historical monuments and sites. Samarkand is very popular among tourists visiting Uzbekistan. They also visited the ancient town of Khiva in Khorezm that celebrated its 2,500th anniversary along with Bukhara last year. Here they visited the Itchan Kala that is under UNSECO's World Heritage Center preservation since 1990. Itchan Kala is the inner town, protected by brick walls about 10 metres high, of the old Khiva oasis, which was the last resting place of caravaneers before crossing the desert to Iran. Although few very old monuments still remain there, it is a coherent and well-preserved example of Moslem architecture of Central Asia, with outstanding structures such as the Djuma Mosque, the mausoleums and the médersas and the two magnificent palaces built in the beginning of the 19th century by Alla-Kulli-Khan.