"The United States does not currently have a military base in Uzbekistan and has not asked for a military base in Uzbekistan... This issue is not on the agenda," ambassador Richard Norland, who spoke in Russian, told reporters.

Norland said, however, that US personnel operating under NATO command have been allowed on a "case-by-case" basis to transit to Afghanistan through a German air base at Termez in southern Uzbekistan since January 31.

Uzbekistan closed down a US air base near the border with Afghanistan in 2005 after Western criticism of a bloody crackdown by Uzbek security forces on an uprising in the eastern province of Andijan in May 2005.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has ruled with an iron fist since Soviet times, has clamped down on any form of opposition to his rule in this mostly Muslim former Soviet republic.

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