TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, April 12 -- A French delegation conducted talks Thursday with senior Tashkent officials on providing arms to Uzbekistan.
The discussions took place amid renewed reports that Islamic rebels were preparing to invade Uzbekistan for the third straight year.
The leader of the French delegation, Xavier de Villepin, told United Press International that discussions were underway on supplying the Uzbek armed forces with French weapons. Villepin, who is chairman of the French Senate foreign affairs, armed forces and defense committees, said his country was also ready to provide the training needed to operate the weapons.
Another delegation member, Andre Dulait, said that as a country moving towards a free-market economy, Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic, was eligible for French credits on preferential terms.
Villepin saw Prime Minister Utkir Sultanov and other senior ministers of President Islam Karimov's regime.
Villepin said the French and Uzbeks shared a worry over the situation in Afghanistan as the Russian new agency Itar-Tass reported that guerrillas of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, under the leadership of Juma Namangani, had arrived in neighboring Kyrgyzstan from bases in Afghanistan on or about March 21.
An official of the Kyrgyzstan National Security Service, Talant Razzakov, was quoted as saying Namangani was preparing to invade Uzbekistan's part of the Fergana Valley from Kyrgyzstan. Namagani is believed to have between 1,500 and 2,000 followers.
The Fergana Valley is noted for the piety of its Muslim population. The IMU is believed to want to set up a new caliphate there and overthrow Karimov.
