(LUXEMBOURG) - EU foreign ministers agreed Tuesday to suspend sanctions against Uzbekistan for a further six months, despite criticisms from human rights groups.

Ministers initially suspended a European visa ban on Uzbek leaders back in October after receiving "positive signals" from the regime, although an arms embargo imposed last year remains active.

The sanctions were originally imposed after Uzbekistan rejected demands for an international probe into the lethal repression of an uprising in its Andijan province in 2005, which left up to 1,000 dead according to rights groups.

On Tuesday, the 27 EU foreign ministers welcomed the release by Uzbek authorities of four human rights activists in February, an agreement allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross to resume visits to prisons there, and the recent abolition of the death penalty.

The ministers said in a statement during a meeting in Luxembourg that the suspension of sanctions would continue for another six months "with a view to encouraging the Uzbek authorities to take substantive steps to improve the human rights situation and taking into account their commitments."

However with human rights groups calling for a tougher line, the ministers agreed to review the decision in three months, adding that they remain "seriously concerned about the situation of human rights and the rule of law in a number of areas in Uzbekistan".

"The EU cannot forget why it imposed sanctions on Uzbekistan in the first place to push for an independent investigation of the killing of hundreds of people protesting against the government," said Natalia Alonso, deputy director at Amnesty International's EU office ahead of the meeting.

"Three years on, the families of the Andijan victims are still waiting for justice," she added.

Amnesty has said that the EU foreign ministers are sending the wrong message, "that Uzbekistan can continue to ignore calls for an independent investigation with total impunity."

Human Rights Watch echoed the call for sanctions arguing that Uzbekistan's "recent grudging steps to better its dreadful human rights record are a direct result of EU pressure generated by the sanctions."

General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC)

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