Following is a transcript of the press conference provided by the U.S. Embassy Tashkent:

PRESS CONFERENCE WITH GENERAL TOMMY R. FRANKS
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND (CENTCOM)

January 24, 2002
Tashkent, Uzbekistan

GENERAL FRANKS: Good morning. It's great to be with you again. I always enjoy visiting Tashkent. We've been in the region since Monday evening and have had an opportunity to visit with many of the local leaders here in Tashkent. We've had a chance to meet with President Karimov as well as Minister {of Defense} Gulyamov. And in fact it's a pleasure to be back.

The purpose of my visit was to congratulate the President on the fact that the corridor {from Termez} is now open toward Mazar-e-Sharif. You'll recall that when I was last here in November we were hopeful that we would be able to get the Friendship Bridge open and establish that corridor. Now that that's done I simply wanted to come and express my appreciation to him.

I am pleased at this point with our efforts as a part of the global war to counter terrorism. I believe that certain aspects of this campaign up to this point have been successful and I'm pleased with that. We also recognize that a great deal of work needs to be done. Certainly the Taliban has been destroyed as a functioning government inside Afghanistan, and the terrorist organizations inside that country have been fragmented and in a large part destroyed up to this point.

Our efforts as we go forward will continue to be aimed at the destruction of remaining pockets or pools of Taliban fighters and Al Qaida located still inside Afghanistan. And of course the terrorist organization in this region with which we remain familiar, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, continues to be on our list to be sought out.

So we will continue our efforts to destroy the remaining remnants of that organization. Our people will continue to exploit sites inside Afghanistan for intelligence information, which we will continue to put together in our efforts to prevent future global terrorist strikes. We will continue to screen and interrogate detainees for the same purpose. And I have mentioned to all of you before, we don't know how long this will take. I am pleased to tell you that the support we have received across the region has been considerable. It has in fact met our every need and we look forward to being the recipients of that continued support.

And with that I'll pause and would be pleased to take your questions.

QUESTION FROM RADIO BBC: Today among the CIS countries it became known that the United States and Uzbekistan have signed an agreement on the lease of Khanabad airbase for 25 years. Is that true? Please comment on this. The second question is: do you believe that the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan still threatens this country? And do you have any information on the location of the leaders of this movement?

GENERAL FRANKS: On the second question regarding the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, I think that the terrorists that we have seen centered in Afghanistan over the past several years will remain a danger as long as even individually they are moving in the area. And so I will not minimize the potential danger associated with the IMU. I'll just simply say that we will continue to rout them out until we have the very last of them. My belief is that the leadership of the IMU has in fact been destroyed.

On the first question, I understand about Kharshi-Khanabad. No, as a matter of fact there is not an agreement that will permit the use of Kharshi-Khanabad airbase for 25 years. What we have said all along is that we do not anticipate a permanent presence in any of the countries in the region, although we have enjoyed wonderful cooperation with all the states in the region. I would anticipate that Uzbekistan as well as the other nations in the region will continue to cooperate with us. But we have not at all made any long-term arrangements for a presence either in Uzbekistan or in any of the other states in Central Asia.

QUESTION FROM TURKESTAN PRESS: I'm glad to welcome you again to Uzbekistan, and I would like you to comment on the plan of contacts you have signed with the Ministry of Defense of Uzbekistan.

GENERAL FRANKS: Military-to-military relationships. What we do with our partner and cooperating nations is, at the beginning of each year, the two sides get together and decide what the military-to-military exchanges, education and security assistance may be for the coming year. And that was the document that I signed Tuesday at the Ministry of Defense. It's a very good, a very cooperative document that sort of provides us a roadmap for the year 2002.

QUESTION FROM KOMERSANT - RUSSIA: The first question is: how do you comment on the leaflets that appeared in Kyrgyzstan and which call for opposition against the deployment of U.S. military bases in the region? The second question is: in Kazakhstan the Kazakh military has prepared a military detachment which they proposed to the United States military be used in the operations and to be deployed in Kabul. Will you accept this offer?

GENERAL FRANKS: On the International Security Assistance Force offer that was mentioned by Kazakhstan, I really don't have any information on it because the lead nation for that force is the United Kingdom. So I can't even speculate about the countries that have offered to participate in that.

With respect to the question about the leaflets or pamphlets inside Kyrgyzstan having something to do with our force positioning in the Manas airfield, the only thing that I can say is that yesterday I visited Bishkek. I had the opportunity to meet with President Akayev and I also had the opportunity to visit the Lower House of the Kyrgyz Parliament. And what I found was very uniform cooperation. I walked away from those meetings with a sense that in fact our forces would be very welcome inside Kyrgyzstan.

QUESTION: The first question is: please comment on the terrorist attacks on the American Center in Calcutta, India. And the second question is: please comment on the means of settling the dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir problem.

GENERAL FRANKS: On the subject of India and Pakistani relations I would say that at this point I have been pleased with the work I have seen done on both sides. I think that the dialogue between India and Pakistan, the identification of extremists within Pakistan in cooperation with the leadership of India makes me hopeful that that crisis can move forward positively. With respect to the attack on targets inside India, the only comment that I would make is that I think that we have great confidence in the law enforcement capability within India. We place our confidence in them and I believe the law enforcement activity will conduct the appropriate investigation of that incident.

And I have a brief follow-up if I may. With respect to the specific question on Kashmir, along the line of contact and the line of control, of course we have seen tension for many years. The only comment that I can actually make about that is that I am hopeful that as a part of this dialogue and discussion between India and Pakistan that we can move something forward on the Kashmir issue in the future.

QUESTION FROM THE FINANCIAL TIMES OF LONDON: General, you said that you are planning to rout out the IMU. I was wondering if you could go into a little more detail on exactly what that involves. For instance would it potentially include U.S. troop involvement in the former Soviet Union in going after IMU potential bases here and cells and whatnot?

GENERAL FRANKS: On the IMU, my comments will focus on Afghanistan because I believe that's where the remnants of IMU, Al Qaida and perhaps some other groups remain. And our operations within Afghanistan will continue to be conducted in cooperation and in coordination with Chairman Karzai and the interim government of Afghanistan. The operations had to do with taking the intelligence information that we receive, identifying potential locations of remnants of terrorist organizations, perhaps the IMU, perhaps Al Qaida, perhaps small numbers of hard core Taliban. Then in cooperation with the Afghans, we move our forces to confirm or deny the presence of these puddles or of these groups and where we find them, we take them down.

And so that will be the approach that we take. I don't have any comment to make about states in the region, because we have not had requests for assistance by the coalition in the Central Asian states and so we will just continue our cooperation as we have had in the past until we have routed out the remainder of these people where we find them.

And a brief follow-up to that one if I may. As I mentioned earlier, we have cooperative relationships and military to military programs with each of the nations in Central Asia. Those arrangements for cooperation have to do with the sharing of intelligence. They have to do with the sharing of training. And so these cooperative arrangements provide opportunities for us to work with all of the military forces in the region to provide assistance where it is requested, to enable forces in each of the nations of Central Asia to be able to work on the IMU problem if there is perceived to be one in any of the states locally.

QUESTION FROM ITAR-TASS: Tuesday you signed a document with the Uzbek military. Is it a document between Central Command and the Uzbek Ministry of Defense? Or is it a document between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Uzbek Ministry of Defense? Could you elaborate on the most important articles in the document and what kind of military cooperation is envisioned in the framework of this document for 2002?

GENERAL FRANKS: Thank you. The military cooperation document was between the United States Central Command and the Ministry of Defense of Uzbekistan. And described in the document are visits by the American military to Uzbekistan for discussions and conferences with their counterparts, as well as visits by Uzbek military to the United States for discussions, seminars and so forth.

Also included in the Memorandum of Agreement are training events. For example, where American small units will come and train alongside their Uzbek counterparts on several occasions this year. Also mentioned in the military-to-military document are opportunities for Uzbek officers to receive training inside the United States. And finally, there is also mentioned in the document, partner relationships between some units in the United States and some Uzbek units.

QUESTION FROM NOVI DIEN: Yesterday you visited Bishkek. Could you please elaborate on the talks you had with the Kyrgyz President and what issues were discussed during your meeting? The second question is: Senator Daschle was visiting Uzbekistan last week and was talking about the State of the Union address that the President will make to Congress and the nation. Could you please explain what kind of statement this will be?

GENERAL FRANKS: On the second question, President Bush will address a joint session of Congress on the 29th of the month, and I honestly have no idea what he'll talk about. I think we are all anxious to hear it ourselves. So I really don't know what he'll say.

With respect to my meeting with President Akayev, essentially I told him, 'thank you' for Kyrgyzstan's support of Operation Enduring Freedom. As I had said to President Karimov, I think considerable work has been done and I congratulated President Karimov in our meeting for the cooperation and the support and the assistance given by Uzbekistan.

When I was in Kyrgyzstan meeting with President Akayev I did essentially the same thing. Kyrgyzstan has provided support, verbal and tangible, to this operation and I very simply wanted to say thank you and extend the appreciation of my government to Kyrgyzstan.

And one additional comment I'd like to make also. As I have talked with my friends and professional associates across Central Asia, I have made a point with respect to my relationship and our relationship with Russia and with the Russians in the region. And some of my friends have asked me if there is a competition in our relationship? And I've offered two points. The first one is that in fact we have at my headquarters representatives of 26 nations who provide liaison and with whom we provide discussion every day. And one of these liaison cells is from Russia. So as we have gone through Operation Enduring Freedom we have had an opportunity every day to coordinate our activities in the region and inside Afghanistan.

And I have pointed out some of the contributions the Russians have made to the situation in Afghanistan by giving examples. One example that I have used is a Russian hospital, which is currently operating in Kabul. We have cooperated with the Russians in placing this hospital there, and it's a very good thing because it is providing medical support and assistance to literally thousands of Afghans. That sort of effort is to be greatly appreciated. And I expect that cooperation to continue.

And in fact this young lady has been standing here a long time, so we'll take one last question.

QUESTION FROM BBC NEWS: Thank you. A quick question. You mentioned earlier that you believe the leadership of the IMU had been destroyed. I wondered if you could explain what evidence you have to support that. In particular relating to the reported death of Juma Namangani?

GENERAL FRANKS: Perhaps I have a not very satisfying answer for you. As we have gone through Operation Enduring Freedom we have never made it a practice to describe the sources of information or the way we receive, the way we process, and the way we use intelligence. So I'll only answer your question by saying the information that I have reflects that Namangani is dead and I'll stay with that.

Thanks to all of you for your hospitality. Thanks very much for coming. And we'll see all of you again soon.