The fate of the Manas base, a central cog in the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan, has been thrown into question since the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government.

Up to 10,000 mourners gathered on the edge of the burnt-out Kyrgyz capital at a funeral to commemorate at least 78 people who were killed when troops loyal to Bakiyev shot into crowds of opposition protesters on Wednesday during the uprising.

U.S. military Central Command, which oversees the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan, said all military passenger flights had been suspended and that cargo flights were not guaranteed.

"Decisions on conducting other, non-passenger-related, flight operations from the base will be made on a case-by-case basis," a spokesman for Central Command said.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Washington, said it was a security-related decision made by the base commander on the ground at Manas.

A spokesman for the U.S. base declined to say when troop flights would resume or what alternative routes would be used.

Pentagon officials say Manas is central to the war effort against the Taliban, allowing around-the-clock flights in and out of neighbouring Afghanistan. About 50,000 troops passed through last month alone.

Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis, a spokesman for the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the disruption at the Kyrgyz base was not yet having a significant impact on operations on the

ground.

"It's only been a couple of days," Sholtis said. "It's not concerning at this time. It would be if it went on for a long time."

The uprising in Kyrgyzstan, where a third of the 5.3 million population lives below the poverty line, forced the president to retreat to his stronghold in the south of the country. His exact whereabouts are unclear.

PRESIDENT BAKIYEV

Bakiyev's refusal to step down remains the key question as calm returned to the streets of Bishkek, still strewn with rubble and broken glass after days of violent clashes and looting.

Roza Otunbayeva, who led the opposition to Bakiyev and is now the interim government chief, has offered the president safe passage out of Kyrgyzstan if he steps down.

"We would really like to start negotiations. We will solve everything peacefully," Keneshbek Dushebayev, head of the new state security service, told reporters.

Mourners at the funeral on the outskirts of Bishkek showed little sympathy for Bakiyev.

Carrying coffins draped in the red-and-yellow Kyrgyz national flag, they clutched portraits of the dead at a memorial complex built in honour of the victims of mass executions ordered by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in the 1930s.

Relatives lowered bodies into 16 graves lined in rows and joined hands in prayer, while mullahs chanted in Arabic.

"Those who died on April 7 are the heroes of Kyrgyzstan," Roza Otunbayeva, the interim government chief, told the crowd.

"It was our duty to establish justice. Those who are being buried here today are all our children, the children of Kyrgyzstan."

Omurbek Tekebayev, a key figure in the provisional government, told the crowd: "Our people defeated the dictator."

Kuat Niyazbekov said his brother had died in the uprising.

Reuters reporters saw dozens of riot police and troops repeatedly fire into crowds of protesters who had massed on the main square outside Bakiyev's offices on Wednesday.

"We don't even know what really happened on the square, what his last minutes of life were like," he said. "We can't forgive a president like that."

The interim government has accused Bakiyev's supporters of stoking violence. In the southern city of Jalalabad, 200 of his supporters gathered near a billboard picturing a smiling Bakiyev shaking hands with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

A crowd of 5,000 ethnic Uzbeks, who comprise a large part of the population in southwest Kyrgyzstan, rallied several kilometres away, saying they supported Kyrgyz unity and opposed any attempt to divide the north and south of the country.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became the first world leader to recognise the authority of the self-proclaimed government, just hours after it took power, raising suspicions that Moscow had played a role in the events.

Otunbayeva has described Russia as a key ally and publicly thanked Putin for his support. Almazbek Atambayev, deputy head of the new government, met Putin in

Moscow on Saturday but there were no details of the talks.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov in Jalalabad; Writing by Maria Golovnina, Robin Paxton and Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Myra MacDonald)