Leaders from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on Tuesday told their foreign ministers to draft plans for a comprehensive reforms of the organization by next June. They also collectively signed a series of deals including one covering co-operation on illegal immigration crackdowns.

After the crumble of the Soviet Union, the 12-member CIS was founded by former USSR countries trying to keep economic and political closeness. However, it has come under frequent fire from inside and out for its lack of effectiveness.

"CIS foreign ministers should develop and submit the package (on reform) for consideration by the heads of state by June 1, 2007," Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose country holds the rotating CIS presidency, told a closing news conference.

A day earlier, the foreign ministers founded a ministerial working group on reforming the 15-year-old organization.

At the one-day summit in the Belarusian capital, the heads of state agreed to strengthen anti-illegal immigration measures and agreed to found a CIS anti-terrorist center. However, no consensus was reached on border demarcation issues between CIS member states.

The CIS groups all the former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia). The Minsk meeting was attended by 11 heads of state. As in previous summits, Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov did not attend but  sent a deputy prime minister for the meeting. The leaders shall convene again in June 2007 in St. Petersburg.

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2006)