EU foreign ministers are this week reviewing sanctions imposed on Uzbekistan following the violent suppression of a demonstration in the eastern city of Andijan, in May 2005. Germany and some other EU states have been calling for the sanctions to be eased. They say the measures have not worked, and greater dialogue with the resource-rich Central Asian nation is needed. Other states and human rights groups say it is precisely because Uzbekistan has failed to address concerns over Andijan and other human rights abuses that sanctions should not only remain, but in fact be broadened. Monday\'s foreign ministers meeting is expected to keep an arms and visa ban in place, but lift a freeze on bilateral talks.Uzbek officials have gone some way to acknowledge human rights concerns by offering to organise a meeting of EU and Uzbek experts in Tashkent to look at events in Andijan. They also agreed to \"strengthen without delay a bilateral dialogue on human rights\" following the talks with European Union officials in Brussels. The EU imposed an arms embargo, a visa ban for 12 top officials and the suspension of a co-operation pact last November. It was in response to what ministers called the \"excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force\" by government troops on mostly unarmed civilians in Andijan on 13 May. Human rights groups said several hundred people were killed in what they called the worst atrocity by a government against demonstrators since the killings at China\'s Tiananmen Square in 1989. Germany\'s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on a visit to Tashkent at the start of the month, raised the possibility of easing sanctions if Uzbekistan took \"concrete steps\" on human rights issues, particularly over Andijan. Berlin has supported the view of some analysts that freezing talks has done nothing to advance human rights, and simply served to push Uzbekistan closer to Russia and China. France was said to favour keeping sanctions but opening a dialogue with Tashkent, while the UK and several Scandinavian countries - along with the US - have held to a firmer line. At the heart of the dilemma is Uzbekistan\'s strategic importance in the region, Dr Roy Allison, a specialist in Central Asia at the London School of Economics, says. As well as having key energy resources that could lessen Europe\'s dependence on Russia, Uzbekistan is also an important base for the war in neighbouring Afghanistan and for keeping good relations with the rest of Central Asia. Both the EU and US are torn between wanting to register their disapproval over the events in Andijan and its aftermath, while at the same time trying to stop Uzbekistan moving even closer to Russia. Dr Allison says it is unsurprising that Germany is leading calls for a softer stance on Uzbekistan. \"Germany as an individual state has some significant trade ties as well as a large diplomatic presence in Central Asia,\" he says. \"Whether Germany can carry out a shift of policy in the EU is another story because human rights issues remain a high priority for some countries.\" (BBC)