ASHGABAT, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Police in Turkmenistan have broken up a major drug distribution ring, the government said on Sunday, after a gunfight in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation.

Law enforcement agents "neutralised" the group in a special operation carried out on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said.

"According to the general prosecutor's office, a group of individuals involved in illicit drug supplies has been identified as a result of law enforcement operations," it said, without giving further details.

It was the first official statement on the events since some residents reported hearing gunfire on Saturday on the outskirts of Ashgabat.

The area was cordoned off but re-opened on Sunday and appeared calm, a Reuters correspondent said.

The gas-rich nation, seen by Western investors as a new alternative source of energy for European markets, is tightly run by the government which allows little opposition to state policy and controls domestic media.

Independent websites such as www.chrono-tm.org which is blocked for Turkmenistan Web users, gave a different version of events, reporting that several police officers were killed in a clash with what it described as Islamist militants.

The predominantly Muslim nation has been stable compared to some of its more volatile Central Asian neighbours and has sought to open up since the death of its absolute leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, in late 2006.

Criticised in the West for human rights violations, Niyazov ran Turkmenistan as a personal fiefdom for 21 years and dotted it with statues of himself.

In 2002, Niyazov's motorcade came under attack from what the government described as assailants plotting to kill him. The events triggered a wave of arrests.

The new president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has vowed to push democratic reform. (Reporting by Marat Gurt; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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