THE beginning of a United States-Russia divide in Central Asia has opened with Uzbekistan's announcement that it will close an American airbase on its territory.

The US Embassy in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent received the diplomatic note terminating the agreement late last week, said state department spokeswoman Nancy Beck.

 

"This is a bilateral agreement between two sovereign nations, and either side has the option to terminate that agreement," said Ms Beck.

The move follows the decision, backed by the US, not to return 450 Uzbeks who fled the country after a massacre of protesters in the town of Andijan in May.

It also underlines a power-play in the region between Moscow and Washington. Last Friday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, visited Uzbekistan's neighbours, Kyrgyztan and Tajikistan, but pointedly avoided flying to Tashkent.

The US opened its Uzbek airbase to help it supply forces in Afghanistan in 2001, but that job now can be done from a base inside the borders of its new ally, Kyrgyztan.

Meanwhile, Moscow is strengthening its ties with Uzbekistan, having signed a strategic partnership agreement that will see Gazprom, Russia's state gas company, make a $1 billion investment.

US backing assisted Kyrgyztan's pro-democracy "Tulip Revolution" in March that saw the opposition take power.

A similar opposition revolution in Uzbekistan was snuffed out by the reported Andijan massacre in May.

Moscow has backed Uzbek assurances that an investigation into the Andijan massacre can be handled by local authorities, while the US has backed calls for an international inquiry.