The fourth conference of the Council of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) opened in Moscow on Wednesday, with the focus of discussions being anti-terrorism and economic cooperation between SCO member states.

Taking part in the meeting were the heads of government of China, Russia and Central Asian states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

China was represented by Premier Wen Jiabao; Russia by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov; Kazakhstan by Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov; Kyrgyzstan by Prime Minister Feliks Kulov; Tajikistan by Prime Minister Akil Akilov; and Uzbekistan by Deputy Prime Minister Uktur Tukhtamuradovich Sultanov.

Mongolian Prime Minister Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh, and Iran's First Vice-President Parviz Dawoodi also attended the conference for the first time as observers.

The SCO was founded in June 2001, and inaugurated an Anti-Terrorist Center in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent in June 2004.

Prior to the conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a meeting with the SCO prime ministers.

The SCO is gathering momentum and acquiring more and more political weight, Putin was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency.

The aggregate population of SCO member states and observer countries exceeds three billion people. It is therefore only natural that SCO decisions would influence the well-being of much of the world. It is an important factor of world politics, Putin noted.

Putin underlined that the SCO had realized all the tasks that it had set five years ago when it was established.

The economic cooperation between the SCO member states is assuming an increasing significance, Putin added, saying that it is necessary to develop interaction within the SCO framework in the economic and humanitarian spheres.

In the economics sphere, special attention has to be paid to financial relations. Russia will welcome the SCO's plans to boost cooperation between financial organizations, Putin said. 

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2005)