Foreign minister Sadyk Safayev in Tashkent. (AFP)

Tashkent, March 29 (Reuters): At least 19 people were killed in a series of explosions and shoot-outs in Uzbekistan in attacks aimed at splitting the US-led anti-terror coalition, officials said today.

Prosecutor general Rashid Kadyrov said another 26 people had been wounded in the ancient city of Bukhara late yesterday and the capital Tashkent today in suicide bombings. He said such methods were “atypical for our nation and imported from abroad”.

At a news conference foreign minister Sadyk Safayev said: “This has been committed by the hands of international terror, including Hizb ut-Tahrir and Wahhabis.” Hizb ut-Tahrir, which aims to set up a pan-Islamic state that would include post-Soviet Central Asia, and the austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam are both outlawed in Uzbekistan.

“That’s the hallmark of the terrorist acts we have already witnessed abroad,” Safayev said. “Attempts are being made to split the international anti-terror coalition.”

Uzbekistan is a close Washington ally in the US-led “war on terror” in neighbouring Afghanistan. It provided a key airbase for US troops in operations there following the September 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on the US.

President Islam Karimov told the nation in a television address today that preparations for the “terrorist acts” had lasted at least six months.

“Once again, it should be noted that to carry out such terrorist acts one needs immense sums of money and it is understandable that in the world there are forces that sponsor terrorism,” said a visibly tense and upset Karimov, dressed in a dark suit and seated next to Uzbekistan’s state flag.

Prosecutor Kadyrov said three policemen and one child died in two suicide bomb attacks in Tashkent. Both female suicide bombers also died.

Poland threat

The junior partner in Poland’s Leftist ruling coalition today demanded a clear timetable for withdrawing Polish troops from Iraq as a price for backing Marek Belka, the new candidate for Prime Minister.

Belka, a former finance minister, is Warsaw’s top official in the US temporary administration in Baghdad. His role as Iraq’s economic supremo reflects Poland's strong support for the US led-invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

The dominant partner in the ruling coalition, the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), and outgoing Prime Minister Leszek Miller have defended Polish involvement in Iraq.

The SLD’s junior partner, the small Labour Union party, said it was likely to back Belka under certain conditions.