TASHKENT, March 29: At least 19 people were killed in a series of explosions and shootouts in Uzbekistan in attacks apparently aimed at splitting the US-led coalition in the "war against terrorism", officials said on Monday.

Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov said another 26 people had been wounded in the ancient city of Bukhara late on Sunday and the capital Tashkent on Monday 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 are both outlawed in Uzbekistan.

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

Uzbekistan is a Washington ally in the "war on terror" in Afghanistan. It provided a key airbase for US troops in operations there following the September 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on the United States.

President Islam Karimov told the nation in a television address on Monday 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. -Reuters