Uzbek authorities shrugged off the UN chief's call for an international probe into a government crackdown on protesters that witnesses say killed hundreds, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. President Islam Karimov has blamed Islamic militants for the unrest and denies that his troops fired on unarmed civilians, dismissing claims of rights activists who put the death toll at over 700. Annan said Karimov opposed an international investigation into the worst bloodshed since the country's independence in 1991. "He said he had the situation under control and was taking every measure to bring those responsible to account, and didn't need an international team to establish the facts," the UN chief said in New York on Thursday night.