Tajik Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov met with Shavkat Mirziyoev, his Uzbek counterpart, in Tashkent on 10 February. They signed two agreements, one on settling accounts for cargo transport and Tajikistan\'s sovereign debt in 2005, and another on cooperation in the use of water and energy resources. The talks focused on trade, with the participants noting that trade volume between the two countries registered a 27 percent year-on-year increase in 2004. RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service reported that, according to unofficial sources, the two sides also discussed easing travel between and through the two countries in the Ferghana Valley region, where in some cases the shortest route between Uzbek cities runs through Tajik territory. (RFE/RL)