"We confirm that the border is closed," Erzhan Ashikbayev told journalists.

"It's not our initiative. We don't have information on the motives for this decision."

Kazakhstan has asked for an official explanation from Uzbekistan but has yet to receive one, Ashikbayev said.

He added that the border is still open for Uzbek nationals entering Uzbekistan and for Kazakh nationals entering Kazakhstan.

The Urban Institute analyses problems

He was reacting to Uzbekistan's decision Monday to shut down the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees

In a statement, Uzbek Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov condemned the UN-coordinated airlift last month of 439 Uzbek refugees out of Kyrgyzstan for resettlement in Western countries, saying that some had committed serious criminal offences and had broken out of jail during the May events.

Kadyrov added that another four Uzbeks

"So far, not a single country has offered to receive the 15 Uzbek citizens," Kyrgyzstan's Prosecutor General Azimbek Beknazarov said in an interview with local radio.

"If such a statement is received from any country, the authorities of Kyrgyzstan are prepared to place these

BISHKEK, July 29 (AFP) - More than 400 people who fled a violent government crackdown in Uzbekistan last May were airlifted by the United Nations Friday out of neighboring Kyrgyzstan where they had sought refuge, but the fate of 15 wanted by Tashkent remained in limbo, officials said.

A total of 439 refugees arrived in Romania after leaving Kyrgyzstan in the early hours Friday aboard a chartered Thai Airway passenger jet. They were to be sheltered temporarily pending relocation in smaller groups in a handful of Western countries, they said.

Kamel Morjane, the UN's assistant high commissioner for refugees, said he had been reassured by a meeting with Kyrgyz interim President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

"I have all confidence in the procedure that has been launched with the authorities of this country and I do hope that, as the acting president said yesterday in his statement and which

"The total number of people killed in the course of this terrorist act was 176, of whom 79 were terrorists," the Uzbek prosecutors office said in a statement.

The previous official figure for those killed during the anti-government protests on May 13 was 173.

But statements gathered by independent

Most of the 25 member states want to go further and suspend the cooperation and partnership agreements between the EU and Uzbekistan, Jean Asselborn, foreign minister of Luxembourg, currently EU president, said after a meeting of the ministers in the Grand Duchy.