Putin contacts Central Asia chiefs

Putin spoke with leaders of former Soviet republics bordering or near Afghanistan

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has talked with leaders of five Central Asian nations to discuss coordinating actions in the wake of the U.S. terror attacks.

The nations, all former Soviet republics, were Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, which are on the Afghan border, and Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, which are close to Afghanistan.

Putin and the Central Asian leaders "continued to discuss the coordination of actions in dealing with the current situation in the region," deputy chief of staff Sergei Prikhodko said. He did not give details.

Putin conducted the conversations by telephone from the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Putin also met with the chief of the general staff, Anatoly Kvashnin, and Viktor Komogorov, deputy director of the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB. According to a Putin spokesman, they informed the president of their recent trips to Central Asia and "coordination of action with partners."

On Saturday, Kvashnin met in Tajikistan with representatives of the Northern Alliance, which is fighting Afghanistan's ruling Taliban.

Kvashnin and Northern Alliance leader Gen. Mohammed Fahim "discussed the situation in Afghanistan in relation to possible U.S. strikes on the Taliban and terrorist training camps and exchanged data on the camps," The Associated Press quoted an Afghan opposition spokesman as telling a news conference on Sunday.

The talks came amid reports from the region that the United States is sending military planes there to take part in action directed against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban.

In a report which has not been confirmed by the Uzbekistan government, an official at Tashkent's civilian airport said two U.S. C-130 cargo planes delivering intelligence equipment had stopped over there on Friday for about 90 minutes, according to the Reuters news agency.

-- CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.