DUSHANBE (Reuters) -- Uzbekistan has halted natural gas supplies to neighboring Tajikistan
due to an $18 million debt, leaving all Tajik households without gas, a source at the Tajik state gas company has said.
"Households have been switched off completely," the source said. "[Aluminium producer] TALCO and [cement maker] Tajikcement are receiving gas from local deposits."
The source said Tajikistan was in talks with Uzbekistan to renew supplies and postpone debt repayment.
The two countries are at odds over a number of issues including energy and water resources.
Uzbekistan this week also
reduced gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan, another former Soviet Central Asian republic, for the same reason.