MOSCOW -- Facing pressure from Russia and China to end America's military presence in two Central Asian states, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld won assurances Tuesday from Kyrgyzstan's new leaders that they would not shut down a U.S. base on Kyrgyz soil used for combat and humanitarian missions in Afghanistan.

Kyrgyzstan does not intend to hand over refugees who fled Uzbekistan after the Andijan uprising, a Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry official said.

Zafar Hakimov, director of the Foreign Ministry's migration service department, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had granted asylum status to 439 of the 455 Uzbek refugees who fled to Kyrgyzstan and have since been transferred to Romania. The remaining 15 Uzbek refugees are being detained in the southern Kyrgyz town of Osh. Four of them have not been granted asylum status because they have been charged with the murder of Andijan's prosecutor general and are awaiting trial, Hakimov said.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's August 14 inauguration demonstrated that Western expectations and Russian fears of a democratic revolution in Kyrgyzstan were equally misplaced. By the same token, the inauguration and its immediate aftermath highlighted the daunting cultural distance to democracy that Kyrgyzstan (and some of its neighbors) need to travel. The inauguration and post-inauguration events also indicated an increase in Russian influence at Western expense, and of Kazakhstan's influence at Uzbekistan's expense in Kyrgyzstan.

Beijing and Bishkek are ready to strengthen cooperation between their armed forces, the Chinese defense minister said Tuesday.

Cao Gangchuan, China's defense minister and deputy chairman of the Central Military Council, held a meeting with Kyrgyz Defense Minister Ismail Isakov Tuesday, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Three more refugees who fled a bloody government crackdown in Uzbekistan in May have applied for asylum in Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz officials said on Tuesday, adding to fears hundreds more may be hiding in the country.

The news, which follows the evacuation to Romania of nearly 500 registered refugees, threatens to reignite a diplomatic row with neighbouring Uzbekistan, which on Tuesday accused the United Nations and Kyrgyzstan of protecting "terrorists".

Kyrgyzstan is not intended to return Uzbek refugees, fled their homeland after the May Andijan events, back to Uzbekistan, director of the Migration Service Department of the KR Zafar Hakimov told “Novosti” News Agency.

“We are not going to return the refugees back ”, - he said.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said it is inadmissible to divide Kyrgyzstan in the “south” and the “north”.

Speaking at a meeting with the leadership of ministries and local administrations on Monday, Bakiyev said, “It is inadmissible to divide our people.”

When he led the opposition, Kurmanbek Bakiyev was a strong supporter of amending Kyrgyzstan’s constitution in order to establish a solid system of checks and balances. Now that Bakiyev has been inaugurated as Kyrgyzstan’s president, however, civil society activists and some politicians are growing concerned that he is losing his zest for placing firmer limits on executive authority.

A driving force behind the March 24 revolution in Kyrgyzstan was popular opposition to then-president Askar Akayev’s accumulation of power. After Akayev’s ouster, provisional leaders convened a Constitutional Council charged with drafting amendments to redistribute authority among the branches of government. Now, four months after the council first met, it seems bogged down by divisive debate and a frequent lack of quorum.

Uzbekistan keeps insisting on the return of 15 Uzbek citizens who are kept in the detention ward in the Kyrgyz city of Osh, the Uzbek Prosecutor General’s Office said in a press release transmitted to Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees exerts unprecedented pressure on the Kyrgyz government,” ready to send abroad “15 criminals as refugees” that are kept in the Osh detention ward, the document said.

Kyrgyzstan’s revolution is at risk of unraveling, as the country’s new president and parliament find themselves on a collision course.

Two recent developments – the dismissal of Azimbek Beknazarov as prosecutor general, and the assassination of MP Bayaman Erkinbayev – have lifted the lid off a long-simmering power struggle involving the executive and legislative branches. The incidents also underscored the prominent role of criminal elements in Kyrgyzstani politics.

The President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiev and President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov during bilateral negotiations [during session of Central Asian Cooperation Organization in St. Petersburg] on October 6, 2005, have noted necessity of filling the Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations with new contents.

The Presidents confirmed intentions to develop bilateral cooperation directed on forward development of traditional good-neighborhood and mutually advantageous relations in spirit of the Agreement about eternal friendship between KR and RU from December 24, 1996.

A senior NATO official says U.S.-led coalition forces plan to increase their use of the US air base in Kyrgyzstan, now that neighboring Uzbekistan has ordered American forces off a base there.

NATO's special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Robert Simmons, made the announcement on Monday during his visit to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

Prominent Kyrgyz politicians Roza Otunbayeva and Azimbek Beknazarov, colored revolution leaders, who have recently lost their official posts, have been nominated as parliamentary candidates by the Kyrgyzstan political coalition of nine parties that opposed ex-President Askar Akayev.

Kyrgyzstan assured the United States on Tuesday it could keep its air base in the former Soviet Central Asian state, a relief to Washington which is being ejected from nearby Uzbekistan.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said at a joint news conference with visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the 1,000 troops could stay as long as they were needed to fly supply missions into Afghanistan in the fight against the Taliban.

Kyrgyzstan and the US agree about the need of the stay on the Kyrgyz territory of an air base of the international anti-terrorist coalition, says a statement signed on Tuesday by the Central Asian republic’s President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Their statement was not made public earlier than on Wednesday because experts have been finalizing it.

The Kyrgyz Prosecutor General's Office intends to seek assistance from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office in its search for former Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev's son Aidar Akayev, the office's press service told Interfax on Friday.

"Owing to the fact that the parliament stripped Aidar Akayev of his parliamentary privileges, the Prosecutor General's office is preparing materials in its search for him and is to seek help in the search from the Russian Prosecutor Generals' Office," the press service said.

Kyrgyzstan's security is at risk from unrest in nearby Afghanistan, the president of the former Soviet republic said Saturday, calling for stronger diplomatic efforts to ensure security.

Kyrgyzstan neighbors China and hosts both U.S.-allied and Russian air bases. Earlier this week, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev reassured visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that U.S.-led troops supporting combat operations in Afghanistan could stay in Kyrgyzstan as long as the war on terror continues.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has said there is no threat of any revolution in Kyrgyzstan.

"I want to tell all our opponents who are predicting crises, disintegration and revolutions that there will be no disintegration, crisis or revolution," he said at an expanded Cabinet session on Saturday. The presidential press service quoted his speech on Monday.