Fallon, head of the US military Central Command, said he planned to visit the Central Asian nation but did not say when.

"I would like to pay a future visit to Tashkent," he told reporters during a visit to Tajikistan, another Central Asian nation bordering Afghanistan.

The US embassy in Uzbekistan confirmed that a visit was planned but did not disclose the date, the report said.

Fallon was tight-lipped on the agenda but said he had no plans to discuss the airbase issue.

"But in any event a visit there would not involve any discussions on the base from my initiative," Fallon said.

"That’s not something that we have on our agenda," he said, adding he would travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan first.