About 20 suspected Islamic militants killed themselves on Tuesday after hours of battling with the Uzbek special forces near the capital Tashkent, news reaching Alma-Ata from the city said.  

The battle erupted about 7:20 local time (0220 GMT) in Yalangach, just three km from the official residence of President Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov, said a statement of the Interior Ministry read on a state-run TV.

"In the process of being detained, 20 of the terrorists blew themselves up using self-made bombs," said the statement. "Moreover, three policemen died and five others were seriously injured."

The clash began with a suicide bombing. Two alleged terrorists detonated explosives when policemen stopped their car, killing themselves and three police officers. And later down the road a woman blew herself up as the police asked her not to approach a bus.

Three women who had been in the car with the female bomber fled to a nearby building where some of their cahoots were inside. After hours of standoff, the two sides began shooting each other and 17 terrorists died.

The incident occurred just one day after the series of terrorist blasts in the former Soviet republic, which killed 19 people and injured 26. Tension remains high in the country.

Also on Tuesday in the Tashkent State, eight attackers died after an exchange of fire with policemen at a sentry, local media reported.

On the same day in the region, a car exploded near the dam of the Charvaka reservoir, local media reported. Once the reservoir is damaged, the city of Tashkent would be flooded. The police have made no comments on the explosion.

In the aftermath of Monday's terror bombings, Uzbekistan has closed its border with Tajikistan in the east and Kazakhstan in the north. The central Asian country has opened a major military base to the United States for the latter's military operations in Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2004)