Reports claiming the arrest of Uzbek First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Rustam Azimov are not true, Tashkent said.

A spokesman for Azimov's office told Interfax on Tuesday that the first deputy prime minister was at his place of work.

Some foreign online newspapers said earlier that Azimov had allegedly been placed under house arrest.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov's younger daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyayeva said the day before that Karimov was in intensive care following a brain hemorrhage suffered on Saturday.

In the evening, a source close to Uzbekistan's leadership refuted reports of some foreign media outlets that Karimov had died in the hospital.

"Doctors assess his condition as stable," he said.

The Russian Embassy in Uzbekistan, for its part, told Interfax that it could neither confirm nor deny information about Karimov's death.

Some foreign experts named Azimov as one of the possible candidates for the post of Uzbek president.