GENEVA, March 13 (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday it had resumed visits to detainees in Uzbekistan after reaching agreement with the authorities on access to all those held.

The accord was reached in three years of negotiations between the Swiss-based humanitarian body and the Uzbek government, which has been widely accused by international human rights groups of abusing political prisoners.

"We have reached an agreement with the authorities that enables us to conduct our visits in Uzbekistan, as elsewhere in the world, in accordance with standard ICRC working procedures," said Yves Giovannoni, its chief in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital.

"This means that we will be able to talk with detainees in private and will have access to all detainees and to all premises in the places of detention," he added in a statement issued in Geneva.

The ICRC suspended visits in 2005 after limits were placed on its activities in the wake of demonstrations that year in the eastern city of Andizhan in which witnesses said hundreds of protesters were killed when troops opened fire.

The Uzbek government, which rights groups say arrested hundreds after the incidents, blamed the violence on what it called Islamic rebels and said the casualties were mostly among the security forces and "terrorists."

An ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva could not say how many prisoners would be visited, but said 6 or 7 ICRC staff would be involved.

The visits would take place over an initial six-month trial period, during which the ICRC team would "evaluate the treatment of detainees and the conditions in Uzbek detention centres," the ICRC said.

The neutral agency visits around half a million detainees in more than 70 countries every year. Its findings and recommendations are kept confidential and shared only with the government of the country involved. (Reporting by Robert Evans; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Janet Lawrence)

AlertNet news is provided by