WASHINGTON - The United States said Thursday it was working with Russia and other countries to help stabilize Kyrgyzstan, where days of fierce anti-government protests left the government in a state of collapse.
Washington said it was following developments in the former Soviet republic closely and would not even say if it still recognized President Askar Akayev, who reportedly fled the country.
US officials said they were working with the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other countries to urge an end to violence and the opening of a political dialogue in Kyrgyzstan.
"We`ve been in contact with our Russian friends and Kyrgyzstan`s Central Asia neighbors to make sure we`re all in sync on the need for a peaceful solution," said deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.
Stephen Young, the US ambassador to Kyrgzystan, stressed the strategic importance of the country and urged Russia, China and other countries to pitch in and try to restore order.
"The international community has a responsibility to work with Kyrgyzstan, as it does with other Central Asian republics, to enure they are developing in a stable and democratic way," Young told CNN.
Young said he spoke with members of the former opposition trying to bring the situation under control after the wave of often-violent protests sparked by allegations of fraud in the March 13 parliamentary poll.
"I look forward to working with them in the days ahead," the ambassador said, adding that US officials would also be reaching out to the Russians, who have long had an influence in Kyrgyzstan.
A US embassy source in Bishkek told AFP separately that the US officials there were encouraging those taking control in the Kyrgyz capital to refrain from violence.
"We`re trying to work with whatever authorities happen to be in charge righ now to help restore a working government and to keep things non-violent," said the source who asked not to be named.
"We`re very concerned about the looting that`s happening downtown. We know that the authorities are concerned about it but at this time they don`t have a way to stop it."
The source said operations at a US military base near the main Bishkek airport were continuing normally and had not been disrupted by the turmoil in the city.
Young said Russia and the United States "have overlapping interests which include a stable Kyrgyzstan which is a bulwark against terrorism, a bulwark against narcotics production and trafficking and other negative trends."
But the envoy added, "This is about the Kyrgyz people and their decisions, and the United States is proud to have a supportive role to that. But this is not about us."
The United States has significant strategic interests in Kyrgzystan, one of the poorest of the five former Soviet republics and considered fertile ground for Islamic militants.
The Americans maintain a major air base in Manas, outside the capital Bishkek, which has an extra-long runway and was used extensively for operations in nearby Afghanistan.
Young said that Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, who was reported to have fled the country Thursday, started off as a champion of democratic reform in Central Asia but his commitment to freedom "was beginning to wane."
"Ironically the forces he set in motion ... led to demands for freer and fairer and transparent elections and when they weren`t delivered in the last couple of months, many people were fed up."
Young said that countries such as Kyrgyzstan took on added importance to the United States after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
"You could say that Kyrgyzstan was a long ways from home but we realized that unstable societies anywhere in the world can come back to threaten American stability and stability generally around the world," he said.
"I think American interests are very much served by the emergence of a stable, prosperous and democratic Kyrgyzstan," he said.
In contrast to the effusive US praise for massive pro-democracy street protests in Ukraine and Lebann, Washington had kept a relatively low profile in the growing turmoil in Kyrgyzstan.
The administration of President George W. Bush has made a point of promoting democractic movements across the world, but Ereli denied suggestions Washington was the "mastermind" of the turmool in Kyrgyzstan.
"We are, like the rest of the international community, a very interested party in the stability and success of democracy in Kyrgyzstan," he said.

03/24/2005 19:19 GMT