The United States is concerned about the outbreak of violence in eastern Uzbekistan.

A State Department spokesman in Washington, Richard Boucher, has called Friday on both the Uzbek government and the protesters to avoid violence and seek a peaceful way out of the crisis.

The European Union is blaming authorities in Tashkent for the violence. A spokesman for the European Commission says the clashes in Andijan were a consequence of the government's lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law, as well as its failure to ease poverty.

In Moscow, Russian authorities have blamed Uzbek protesters for the violence. The head of the Duma State Committee for International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, warns that the Adijon uprising could trigger a wave of unrest across a wider area of Central Asia.