The decision was "an unconscionable abdication of responsibility toward Uzbek victims of abuse," Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and the International Crisis Group said in a joint statement.

EU foreign ministers on Tuesday voted to lift the four-year-old arms embargo, put in place after Tashkent refused a demand for an international probe into the reported killing of unarmed civilians during a 2005 uprising.

Rights groups accused the bloc of pandering to the Central Asian state in order to obtain its cooperation in supporting military operations in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The European Union "has effectively abandoned the cause of human rights in Uzbekistan," said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"The EU keeps reiterating its demands for human rights but then never actually holds Uzbekistan to those standards, making these demands ring hollow."

Uzbekistan, an isolated state bordering increasingly-unstable Afghanistan, has been ruled with an iron fist for two decades by 71-year-old former Uzbek Communist Party boss Islam Karimov.

Under Karimov, Uzbekistan has been accused of employing torture against political prisoners and cracking down on religious freedoms among the country's majority-Muslim population.

The government denies using torture, but defends its tough policing measures as necessary to combat Islamist militant groups.

In 2005, EU and US criticism over the Uzbek government's handling of an armed uprising in the city of Andijan led to a rift that saw Tashkent expel a US airbase that helped support operations in Afghanistan.

Uzbek authorities say that 187 people were killed in Andijan, all due to the actions of Islamic insurgents, while international rights groups say hundreds of mainly unarmed protesters were killed.

Prominent Russian rights organization Memorial said that Uzbekistan was being rewarded for its behaviour, despite having stonewalled attempts to investigate the incident.

"Uzbek authorities have not only ignored demands for an independent investigation of the Andijan tragedy, during which the actions of government forces led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians," the group said.

It "also continues mass repressions inside the country. Thousands of Uzbek Muslims are exposed to torture and are in prisons on forged political charges."

In recent months relations between Tashkent and the West have warmed, and in February Karimov granted the US military the right to transit non-military supplies through his country as part of a new supply route.

The EU described its decision was part of efforts to encourage what it said were positive reforms already undertaken by Uzbekistan, rather than as part of a quid-pro-quo to win further concrete concessions.

Bu the move to abandon sanctions shows that The United States and Europe are more concerned with Uzbek cooperation in Afghanistan than rights, said Paul Quinn-Judge, a Bishkek-based analyst for the International Crisis Group.

"As a result of that they are willing to take the regime on its word when it says its cleaning up its act on things like human rights, although there's no indication that they're doing anything other than total symbolism in that field," he said. "Really, it's rather sad."

Surat Ikramov, the head of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan (IGNPU) told AFP that he felt personally betrayed by the decision.

"I think this shows the EU's weakness in front of its own energy and geopolitical interests. We haven't witnessed improvements in human rights issues here in the country since the 2005 Andijan events," he said.

"Indeed, we feel abandoned by the EU. I feel as though I've been betrayed by the EU," he added.

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