U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has denied the existence of plans to enlarge the U.S. military contingent currently deployed in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Speaking at a Monday news conference during a stop-over in Dushanbe on his way to Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said that the U.S. has no plans to increase its military presence in any region of the world. The U.S., which has a military base in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, had to shut down its base in Uzbekistan following the Uzbek authorities\' reaction to U.S. officials\' statements criticizing what they described as the violent suppression of protests in the town of Andizhan. It is vital to restore security in Afghanistan, and the United States needs other countries\' support in these efforts, the U.S. official said. \"Destructive forces seeking to restore the former regime in Afghanistan\" have stepped up their activities, Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov told the same news conference. \"The situation in Afghanistan has become more complicated of late. Destructive forces in the country\'s southern regions have intensified their operations. The latest events in Kabul confirm this,\" he said. \"Of course, all this pursues a certain goal. I mean the restoration of the former regime. But I think that this objective cannot be achieved,\" Nazarov said. The United States increased its assistance to Tajikistan after the Tajik authorities allowed airplanes of the anti-terrorist coalition en route to Afghanistan to land at Tajik airports. A total of 400 French servicemen and six Mirage airplanes are currently deployed at Dushanbe Airport. (Interfax)