US keen to mend ties with Uzbekistan: US official

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

TASHKENT (AFP) — A senior US official on Monday praised signs of liberalisation in Uzbekistan as authorities released a prominent rights activist from jail.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said that Washington recognised progress being made by the ex-Soviet state in passing laws on habeas corpus, allowing the Red Cross to visit prisons and making new commitments to religious tolerance.

"But we also want to be involved with Uzbekistan when it to comes to full implementation of these commitments," Boucher told reporters in Tashkent.

Relations between the two former allies suffered a blow when Uzbekistan in 2005 closed down a US air base set up near the Afghan border in retaliation against US accusations of a bloody...