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Karshi-Khanabad air base in south-eastern Uzbekistan, which the US has been given six months to leave, has played a key role in supporting US operations in Afghanistan since 2001. Its location in a secure area, a short journey from the border with Afghanistan, makes it an ideal logistical centre outside the field of military operations. Known by US troops as K2, it is used as a landing base for humanitarian goods, which are then taken by road into often inaccessible areas of northern Afghanistan. Its long runway also makes it useful for refuelling large military aircraft. Flight curbs Uzbekistan's authoritarian...

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan assured the United States on Tuesday that it could keep its base in the former Soviet Central Asian state to support American military operations in Afghanistan. But remarks by the Kyrgyz leadership, under pressure on the issue from old ally Russia, fell short of providing the United States with an open-ended right to stay for as long as it wished. "I wouldn't pack your bags," visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told U.S. troops at the base at Manas international airport, 30 km (17 miles) east of the capital Bishkek, in an upbeat comment after talks with...

For the past several years, the United States has stationed forces in the central Asian countries of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Marshall Goldman, a long time-expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union, says the United States planned to send troops there following the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "After September 11th and the United States' decision to go after the Taleban and Osama bin Laden, who was then in Afghanistan, the United States was looking for places to establish air bases, so that it could supply what became the invasion force in Afghanistan," said Mr....

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a relatively new regional entity. It started in 1996, and was first known as the Shanghai Five, bringing together Russia, China and three central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Those three countries share borders with either Russia or China - or both. Martha Brill Olcott Martha Brill Olcott is central Asian expert with the Washington D.C.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She says, originally, the organization was formed to try to resolve disputed border issues between member nations. "Once it got through that first threshold, the member states decided that they saw a need...

During a press conference following the meetings, Ms. Rice rejected a call by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security grouping led by China and Russia, for the United States to set a deadline for leaving Central Asian states, including Afghanistan. "It is our understanding that the people of Afghanistan want and need the help of U.S. armed forces," she said.

An alliance of former Soviet states and China has urged the US-led coalition in Afghanistan to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from member states. The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation said it continued to support the anti-terror coalition in Afghanistan, which had stabilised the situation. But in a joint statement the group said the active military phase of the Afghan operation was nearing completion. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan host US bases used to back troops in Afghanistan. About 18,000 coalition forces are in Afghanistan tracking al-Qaeda and Taleban militants. SHANGHAI CO-OPERATION ORGANISATION China Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan Uzbekistan At talks in Kazakhstan,...