"Now those affected by tragic events in southern Kyrgyzstan have returned to their homeland and they need maximum support," an Uzbek Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti today.

Over 400,000 people are believed to be internally displaced as a result of deadly ethnic clashes in mid-June, while about 110,000 took refuge in Uzbekistan.

About two thousand people are feared killed in the ethnic violence against Uzbek minority in Kyrgyzstan's two southern regions of Osh and Jalalabad.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, who visited Uzbekistan's Andijan province on the border with Kyrgyzstan yesterday, also confirmed the return of refugees to their homes.