Uzbek President Islam Karimov speaks at a press conference in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan May 14, 2005. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

Two Uzbekistan women walked through downtown Andizhan after the riot. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

A Uzbekistan nurse is taking care of the wounded at the hospital. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

Residents watch the funeral ceremony of the victims. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

    ALMA-ATA, May 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Uzbek President Islam Karimov blamed a branch of the outlawed radical Hizb ut-Tahrir group on Saturday for the turmoil in the eastern town of Andijan as thousands of Uzbeks sought to flee the Central Asian country.

    "The organizers of the unrest were 'Akramites,' a new offshoot of the Hizb ut-Tahrir group. Its goals, which are unacceptable forus, are hatred and denial of the secular way of development," Karimov told a press conference in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan.

    "According to the information we have, they are brainwashing young people with ideas of creating a unified Islamic state," Karimov said.

    The Hizb ut-Tahrir group, a banned radical Islamic movement, was also held responsible by the Uzbek government for murdering dozens of people in the country last year.

    Ten government troops and many protesters were killed and at least 100 people wounded in the violence, the Uzbek leader said, adding that no one ordered the soldiers to fire on the crowd, referring to the reported death of women and children in the incident.

    "In Uzbekistan, nobody fights women, children and the elderly,"he said, declining to give an exact number of casualties.

    The authorities had tried to create favorable conditions for negotiations with the rioters, who "were offered transport to leave along their chosen route," but the government could not accept their condition of releasing jailed supporters in various parts of the country, he said.

    "No country negotiates such things with criminals," Karimov said.

    The leader described the developments in Andijan as an attempt to copy the recent events in Kyrgyzstan. "We realize that such developments spill across the borders to the territories of neighboring countries," he said.

    Hundreds of protesters gathered again on Saturday on the squarein Andijan, the fourth-largest city in the former Soviet state, but a Uzbek Interior Ministry spokesman told Russia's Interfax that most of them had left by nightfall.

    The Uzbek government said on Friday that the situation in Andijan had been brought under control after thousands of armed protesters set free prisoners from a prison and clashed with security forces.

    Meanwhile, some 5,000 terrified refugees gathered at the Uzbek border town of Kara-Su, 50 km east of Andijan, seeking to enter neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

    More than 500 Uzbek refugees have forced their way into Kyrgyzstan, who are staying peacefully in the Osh region and have not made any political demands, Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Miroslav Niyazov was quoted as saying.

    Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have closed their borders with Uzbekistan, according to the local media.

    The focus of the bloody jailbreak was 23 men on trial for allegedly conducting anti-constitutional activities and forming a criminal and extremist organization. Violence culminated days of protest Friday as thousands of armed protesters plunged Andijan into chaos, releasing prisoners from a prison and engaging in clashes with security forces.

    In a separate development, a suspected suicide bomber was shot dead by security officers posted at the Israeli Embassy in Tashkent on Friday.

    The situation in the former Soviet republic sparked wide concern after governments collapsed in three other former Soviet republics -- Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan -- in the past one and a half years.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Karimov on the phone Saturday to express "deep concern" about the threat to stability in Central Asia, while Britain and the United States condemned the violence in Uzbekistan, urging the Uzbek authorities to resolve itpeacefully.

    "We urge both the government and the demonstrators to exercise restraint at this time," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Friday.

    "We have had concerns about human rights in Uzbekistan, but we are concerned about the outbreak of violence, particularly by some members of a terrorist organization that were freed from prison," he said. Enditem