Uzbekistan urged Russia on Wednesday to help protect Central Asia against what it said would be a rising threat from militant Islam as U.S. forces draw down their numbers in Afghanistan.

President Islam Karimov said Central Asia, a resource-rich and mainly Muslim region nestled between Russia, China and Afghanistan, could face a fate similar to that of Iraq, swaths of which have been taken over by Islamic State insurgents.

"Various elements among the representatives of Islamic State are already slipping into Afghanistan from Iraq and Syria. All this requires the adoption of appropriate preventative measures," Karimov said, without elaborating, at a news briefing with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin alongside.