Uzbek Muslims held mass prayers for rain Friday as the Central Asian country suffers severe droughts associated with climate change.

The prayers were held in 2,000 mosques across the Muslim country of 35 million people.

"We never had such prayers before," 63-year-old faithful Abdurashid Rasulov told AFP at a prayer in the capital Tashkent.

"But now, since the rain is delayed, our religious leaders instructed us to ask Allah for rain," he added.

Anvar Abduazizov, 67, said: "We prayed for a blessing for our country and our land and for the rain to pour down abundantly."

For Tashkent, the largest city in Central Asia, this year's drought has been one of the harshest in 170 years, Uzbekistan's Meteorological Agency said this month.

Over the past 60 years, temperatures in Uzbekistan have

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