US struggles to defend bases in Central Asia

Officially, Washington says it sees no contradiction between the ideals. But experts say the US administration faces problems in this key region in the war on terror, right on the border of Afghanistan.

"The United States is losing ground," said Martha Brill Olcott, an expert on Central Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov has been widely criticised for human rights violations in the country he rules. Brill said that Karimov now appears to be turning his foreign policy toward Russia and China, which are less demanding in human rights standards.

Washington has failed to secure a commitment from Karimov to carry out an inquiry into the bloody repression of demonstrations at the southern town of Andijan -- that left 113 dead according to the government and several hundred according to non-government groups.

The Uzbek government has reduced the number of US flights allowed to land at the Karshi Khanabad base in southern Uzbekistan and has threatened to close the US facility altogether.

The State Department is putting a brave face on the dilemma. "We don't see pushing for democracy and being able to have relations with them on security issues as incompatible," said a department official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States has had another base at the airport in the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek, since 2001. There the country's new democratically elected president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, is considering closing the base.

At a meeting earlier this month of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation -- China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- Bakiyev signed a declaration asking for a date for the pullout of US troops from his country.

Russia also has a base outside Bishkek and it has announced it would increase troop numbers there from around 300 to more than 600.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Thursday highlighted the importance of Central Asia to the United States and criticised Russia and China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation statement.

"It looks to me like two very large countries were trying to bully some smaller countries. That's how I view it," Myers said.

US officials in Washington and Bishkek say they are confident the US base there will remain open, no matter what Russia does.