Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew on Saturday to Uzbekistan, a key Central Asian ally in the military campaign in Afghanistan, as part of a lightning tour that had already taken in Russia and Tajikistan. 
He made no comment on arrival late at night in Tashkent from Tajikistan which, like Uzbekistan, has strategic significance for the United States since it borders Afghanistan. Russia had earlier renewed a promise of intelligence support for the war. 
After meeting Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov in Dushanbe, Rumsfeld expressed gratitude for the former Soviet republic's cooperation with U.S. "overflights and intelligence and various types of military-to-military cooperation." 
He told journalists that experts from both sides would study what additional help could be provided in the war against the Islamic Taliban movement that rules Afghanistan. 
Tajikistan has offered the use of its airspace and other support for U.S. search-and-rescue and humanitarian operations. 
Fellow former Soviet republic Uzbekistan has offered an air base to Washington for similar operations and at least 1,000 U.S. troops are thought to be based there. 
Rumsfeld was due to have talks with Uzbek President Islam Karimov before flying on to Pakistan and finally to India, the last stop on the whirlwind tour of five countries. 
Earlier in Moscow, Rumsfeld had talks in the Kremlin on Russia's key backing for the month-long campaign, including support by Russia's intelligence services. 
"Today we discussed the specific levels of our cooperation," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters after attending a meeting with Rumsfeld and President Vladimir Putin. 
"To a large part it concerns Russia's use of special services and here I cannot comment any further," said Ivanov, who also had separate talks with his U.S. counterpart. 
Russia, while backing Washington's anti-terrorism campaign, has ruled out any involvement of its armed forces. It was clear that by "special services" Ivanov was referring to intelligence agents and not special operations commandos. 
Russia has sided with the United States in efforts to form a global anti-terrorism coalition. It has backed the U.S. campaign aimed at toppling the Taliban, which is sheltering Osama bin Laden, who is blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks on the United States. 
Supplying intelligence to the United States on militants and Afghanistan was part of a public pledge made by Putin in September when he outlined Russian policy on the crisis. 
But Ivanov, mindful of the Russian public and the trauma of Moscow's 10-year armed intervention in Afghanistan which cost thousands of Russian lives in the 1980s, once again emphasized that Russian troops would not be sent to Afghanistan. 
"I see no reason why we should change our position," he said. 
With a U.S. summit meeting scheduled in 10 days between Putin and President Bush, the two defense chiefs also had some discussion on strategic arms, one of the main sticking points marring a relationship that is otherwise enjoying a period of unusual warmth. (Additional reporting by Sergei Yakovlev and Adam Tanner in Dushanbe and Oleg Shchedrov in Moscow)