BISHKEK, Aug 16: The leaders of China, Russia and four Central Asian states met on Thursday in Kyrgyzstan to build on growing military and political ties seen as countering US influence in the strategic region.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russia's Vladimir Putin, together with the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, gathered just outside the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek for the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Speaking in a new conference centre built by Chinese contractors under the shining backdrop of the snow-covered Tien Shan mountains, Russia's Putin described the SCO as a budding force.

“Year after year the SCO becomes a more significant factor in strengthening security and stability in the Central Asian region,” he said.

Anti-terrorism, anti-narcotics, the environment and economic development, with a focus on transport links, topped the agenda.

On Friday, all six leaders were to fly to Russia to witness the climax of unprecedented SCO military manoeuvres held in the Ural Mountains area.

Many analysts see the SCO as an anti-Western club aiming to stem inroads by the United States and its allies, as well as the Nato military alliance, in an oil- and gas-rich region that China and Russia consider their backyard.

The SCO, founded six years ago, publicly denies such an agenda.

However, calls for a “multi-polar world,” repeated by several leaders Thursday, reflect opposition to US domination on the international stage.

“We are convinced that... any attempts to resolve global and regional problems alone are useless,” Putin said, in a barely disguised swipe at Washington.

With US influence waning in parts of Central Asia, and Nato forces struggling to suppress Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, the SCO is gaining clout.

In 2005 the United States was forced to close a military base in Uzbekistan and now Kyrgyzstan is under pressure to end the US lease of an air base outside Bishkek. Russia says it wants to expand its own air base near the capital.

That military capability will be underlined Friday when the leaders attend joint exercises near Russia's Chelyabinsk, the first in the SCO's history to involve servicemen from all member states.

Dubbed “anti-terrorism exercises,” the manoeuvres involve some 6,500 troops and heavy weapons in taking control of a built-up area.

Critics, who see the SCO as a bastion against Western pressure for democratic development in the region, have described the scenario as training for repression of ethnic or civil unrest.

Putin praised the developing military capability and proposed “raising the SCO's capability in the security sphere” with regular military training exercises.

He also suggested the SCO organise a conference on development aid for Afghanistan, confirming a steady warming of Afghan-Russian ties almost two decades after Soviet troops ended their bloody occupation of the country.

Later Putin was to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, attending the summit as a guest. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is embroiled in a standoff with Western powers over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, was attending the summit with observer status and is keen to win full membership.

Lambasting the United States' “illegal interference” and attempt “to create a new political map in the Middle East,” he praised the SCO and said the organisation had great potential in the energy sphere.

He also attacked US missile defence plans in eastern Europe as “threatening” all of Eurasia.

Others applying for SCO membership are India and Pakistan, who sent lower-level representatives to Bishkek, and Mongolia, whose president was due to meet Putin on Thursday.

The leader of the gas-rich, reclusive state of Turkmenistan was also attending as a guest.

On the eve of the summit, Hu and Bakiyev signed agreements aimed at encouraging a recent surge in bilateral trade, and on fighting what was termed as terrorism in eastern Kyrgyzstan, where refugees from China's Muslim Uigur minority have previously sought shelter. After his stop in Russia for the military exercises, Hu will complete his tour with a trip to oil-rich Kazakhstan.

—AFP