Uzbek asylum seekers, including those destined for Canada, are at the centre of a diplomatic row between Uzbekistan and Washington over the use of a U.S. base strategic to the military efforts in Central Asia.

As 439 Uzbek refugees were being quietly flown to initial sanctuary in Romania late last week, the Uzbek government was notifying Washington it had six months to close down its air base and operational hub, known as Karshi-Khanabad Airfield, or K-2.

According to U.S. authorities, K-2 has played a central role in counterterrorist operations in neighbouring Afghanistan and in carrying out relief operations. As many as 1,300 U.S. personnel live on the base and the bulk of their efforts are focused on moving an average of 200 people and 100 tonnes of cargo through the facility.

The Uzbek refugees had fled a May uprising in Andijan during which several hundred people were killed, according to various human-rights groups. Human Rights Watch called it a massacre. Some of the survivors fled to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where they were housed until their airlift to Romania.

But Romania is only a temporary haven until they are processed with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and resettled. Canada has agreed to accept about 50. Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu said the refugees could remain in his country for up to six months before being relocated.

Citizenship and Immigration officials could not be reached yesterday to explain the refugee selection process or the timeline for the arrival of the new settlers to Canada.

The movement of the Uzbek refugees has incensed hard-line Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has blamed Islamic extremists for the violence. He has demanded their return.

Mr. Karimov, a Soviet-era Communist party apparatchik who is being supported by Moscow and Beijing, has ignored calls by Washington and the European Union for an independent investigation into the Andijan incident.

In the aftermath of the Andijan uprising, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States had been "encouraging the Karimov government to make reforms" and insisted they would hold every country "equally responsible" for human rights problems "without regard to what else might be going on in our relationship."

U.S. media reports quote unidentified U.S. government officials as saying Washington would rather accept the loss of its Uzbek military base rather than yield in its position that Uzbekistan must agree to an impartial inquiry and that it must accept political and economic changes.

Unless Washington can persuade Mr. Karimov to change his mind about the base closing, the United States will have to rely on a small base in Kyrgyzstan, which is further away, to get troops and supplies to Afghanistan. It also has a refuelling arrangement with Tajikistan.