Breaking through a wooden gate and firing only a single warning shot, Uzbek forces recaptured a local leader who had proclaimed plans for an Islamic state - quelling what appeared to be the last open resistance to the government.

Government troops reclaimed control of an eastern Uzbek town where rebels announced they would build a strict Islamic state, arresting the group’s leaders without bloodshed, residents said today.

A REBEL leader deepened the crisis in eastern Uzbekistan by announcing an Islamic uprising in his border town.