The UN refugee agency told that figures provided by Tashkent showed that some 70,000 people, mainly ethnic Uzbeks, had gone back so far.

But thousands of refugees are believed to remain in Uzbekistan.

At least 200 people are known to have died in the clashes though the final number is feared to be much larger.

A spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Uzbekistan said that many camps were now empty and dozens of buses were transporting people to the Kyrgyz border.