He said Uzbekistan was able to conserve its partly damaged old buildings using traditional methods although such materials no longer existed, Bernama reported.

The Uzbeks could conserve and preserve hundred-year-old buildings, he told Malaysian journalists in Tashkent.

The minister is part of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s delegation which is on a four-day visit here ending Wednesday.

He said Tashkent had been in existence for 2,000 years while Samarkand was 2,750 years old and yet they could still preserve their old buildings.

He also said that Malaysia could learn from the conservation and preservation of Uzbekistan’s handicrafts as they still existed after a hundred years.

He said the cultural exchange programme between the two countries would include handicraft and wood-craving experts.

Uzbek architecture is not strange to Malaysia as the Putrajaya Mosque, Perdana Gallery in Langkawi and the Sarawak State Assembly building which is currently being built have integrated such elements.