TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) - The Iranian and Uzbek leaders urged closer ties between their countries on Friday, playing down fears that the U.S. military presence in Uzbekistan would strain relations.
"All countries define their policies on the basis of their national interests," President Mohammad Khatami told a news conference after talks with Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
He said they had agreed not to interfere in each other's foreign and domestic affairs.
Troops from the U.S.-led anti-terrorist coalition have been deployed since late last year in the ex-Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to support the military operation in nearby Afghanistan. Both Russia and Iran have bristled at the U.S. military buildup in their backyards that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Khatami's tour of Central Asia, which began this week with a visit to Turkmenistan, is seen as an attempt to reassert Iran's interests in the region.
During his visit to Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Khatami called the foreign military presence in the region "humiliating" for its people.
"The presence of armed forces of large, non-regional states in Central Asia prompts Iran's concern," Khatami said.
Karimov defended his country's increased cooperation with the United States as being transparent and in the interests of both Uzbekistan and the United States.
"Our relations with the United States are no secret to anyone... There are no issues that we would want to hide from anyone, including Iran," Karimov said.
Khatami said he and Karimov also had discussed the future of Afghanistan and agreed to cooperate in rebuilding its economy, including building new transport routes via Afghanistan.
He said both countries had suffered from the Taliban regime and al-Qaida activities in Afghanistan and wanted peace in that country, but warned against outside interference
"Afghanistan should follow the path chosen by its own people," Khatami said.
Karimov, whose government has struggled over the past few years with an Islamic opposition allegedly linked to al-Qaida, said he would continue to prosecute members of the banned radical Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir.
He also said he would seek the extradition of Uzbek nationals arrested in Afghanistan during anti-terrorist operations. He said no such people had been identified so far among the prisoners held by the United States, but that two or three Uzbeks had been detained in Kabul.
Khatami is expected to visit the ancient towns of Bukhara and Samarkand before leaving Uzbekistan for Kyrgyzstan. The last leg of his tour of the region will take him to Tajikistan.