TASHKENT, July 1: Uzbekistan has asked neighbouring Turkmenistan to look into reports that Turkmen guards have killed an Uzbek citizen on the countries' common border, an Uzbek foreign ministry official said on Thursday.

The Uzbek foreign ministry summoned Turkmenistan's ambassador Tuesday to request an official statement on the reported death last month, reported by several Internet sites, of 46-year-old father-of-three Aidogdy Mukhanov, Uzbek foreign ministry spokesman Ilkhom Zakirov said.

If confirmed the death would be the second this year along the two former Soviet republics' remote semi-desert border. Problems at the border have in recent years exacerbated tensions between the two countries, heightened last year by Turkmen accusations of Uzbek involvement in a plot to assassinate Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov. -AFP