Heavy arms fire rings out in Kyrgyz south
Ethnic Uzbeks in the south Kyrgyz conflict zone are threatening to blow up an oil depot if the interim government tries to take it by force.
Officials have entered talks about gaining access to the site in Osh, the scene of deadly communal violence in the past week.
This facility stores most of the petrol distributed in the region.
About a quarter of a million people in the region have fled their homes and the death toll has reached 179.
The UN and Russia have begun airlifting humanitarian supplies into the region.
The US is sending its top Central Asia diplomat, Robert Blake, for meetings with officials in the capital Bishkek on Friday and Saturday.
At least 1,870 people have been injured, according to the Kyrgyz health ministry.
Heavy arms fire rang out over the Kyrgyz city of Osh before dawn yesterday as authorities struggled to bring order to the Central Asian country's south after days of deadly ethnic riots.
The violence which erupted last Thursday in Osh between the majority Kyrgyz population and Uzbeks and spread to surrounding regions has prompted more than 100,000 Uzbeks to flee for their lives to Uzbekistan, with tens of thousands more camped on the Kyrgyz side of the border or stranded in a no man's land.
Humanitarian aid was trickling in via Uzbekistan, though some supplies coming via Osh were reportedly intercepted and volunteers attacked.
BREAKDOWN OF TRUST
A representative from the Uzbek side told the BBC that after several days of violence they no longer trusted the government and Kyrgyz military and were hoping for UN peacekeepers to intervene.
The Uzbeks are saying that they want peace but need guarantees of safety, which the authorities cannot provide, the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie reports from Osh.
AIRLIFT
The UN refugee agency has begun delivering humanitarian aid for an estimated 75,000 people in makeshift refugee camps over the border in Uzbekistan.
A plane carrying 800 tents landed in the Uzbek city of Andijan on Wednesday, Uzbek officials at the airport told AFP news agency.
Separately, two Russian government cargo planes, each carrying 42 tonnes of aid including food and blankets, landed in Bishkek.
Evidence that the initial violence was "orchestrated, targeted and well-planned" has been uncovered by the UN.
REFERENDUM
The government believes allies of Bakiyev, who now lives in exile in Belarus, want to derail a national referendum on constitutional reform scheduled for 27 June.
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